


Better Place

by JadelynTate



Series: Colorado Lewis Family [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Darcy Lewis-centric, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-06-07 21:52:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6825934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadelynTate/pseuds/JadelynTate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy was being guilt-tripped by her mother to attend her 10 year high school reunion. The rest of her friends conspire to make it memorable...and quite possibly to match-make her with one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pyrokinetic

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on a couple different things but I PROMISE I'm still working on Alpha Operations. This just wouldn't leave me alone--quite possibly because my own 10 yr reunion was supposed to be last year and I just realized it.

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

“You know, Doll, if you keep glaring holes at it, it just might burst into flames.” 

“That would be preferable,” Darcy grumbled, though she turned away from the offending item. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a metal hand reach out and snag it up. She turned fully to glare at the man now holding the offensive thing. “What do you think you’re doing?” 

“Finding out what has your panties in a twist,” Bucky replied easily, slipping open the envelope and pulling out the invitation. She half-heartedly reached to snag it out of his hand but he easily lifted it above her. As annoyed as she was about the invite, she knew if Bucky really wanted to read it, there was little she could do to stop him. 

“Gaudy little thing,” he mumbled before he cleared his throat and read it aloud, “‘You are cordially invited--’”

“Ha! Cordially! Yeah right!” 

“‘To the 10 year anniversary of—holy shit, this is your high school reunion?”

“Don’t remind me,” she groaned. “I’m trying to forget about it.” 

“But why?” that was Steve and when the heck had he come in? “I mean, I wouldn’t mind attending my high school reunion.” 

“I think they’re all dead,” Bucky frowned. 

“Which is why I said I wouldn’t mind, not that I wanted to,” Steve replied with a smile. 

Darcy snorted. “I wish mine were all dead,” she mumbled. 

“No, you don’t,” Steve said, mildly reproachful.

“No, I don’t,” she agreed sheepishly. 

“So you don’t want to go?” Bucky finally asked, handing over the invite to his friend. Steve made a face at the item—likely because it _was_ gaudy as hell, Bucky was so not wrong about that—but inspected it anyway. 

“My school was really fucking small, about two-hundred fifty kids in the entire district,” she said. “Everyone was all sports, all the time. If you weren’t sports or were in any way different from the status quo, you tended to be ignored or bullied.”

For the most part she’d suffered from the former, if only because it had been impossible to ignore her. The guys paid attention because of her assets, while the girls had been paying attention to her “intentions” towards their various and always changing boyfriends. Of course, she’d been pretty vocal too, which hadn’t helped. 

“Didn’t you tell me once you were in a ton of different clubs in high school?” Jane asked from a nearby desk. Darcy had thought she hadn’t been paying any attention to the group but apparently she was wrong. 

“Only to pad my resume for college,” she snorted. “I worked my tail off because my goal was to get out of that town. Now they’re trying to drag me back in.” 

“It’s just for a visit,” Jane pointed out. “It’s not inviting you to move back.” 

“Yeah, but why the hell would I want to go back and make nice with the people who made a good portion of my high school hell?” she asked, did not whine, thank you very much. 

“Because you can throw it in their faces that they’re still there and you are out in the world kicking ass,” a voice suggested from the vents. 

“Barton,” Steve said warningly at the same time Jane demanded he get out of the vents. 

“You screw up my data when you stomp around the vents. We’ve talked about this!” Jane reminded him angrily as he easily swung down.

“You talked, doesn’t mean I listened,” he smirked and despite herself, Darcy snickered. When Jane turned her annoyed huff on her, she held up her hands. 

“Sorry Janey,” she said.

“I meant it though,” Barton said. “That’s literally the only reason I went back to my reunion. I wanted to rub it in this one guy’s face that I was a senior agent with SHIELD and he was still home-bound.” 

“And he cared about that why?” Bucky asked curiously. Steve was frowning but Darcy noticed he seemed to be paying just as much attention as the rest of them. 

“Cause he was bound and determined he would be an FBI agent by then,” Barton replied. “I only attended the school my senior year but everyone knew what his plans were cause he wouldn’t shut up about them. He was smug, superior, and drove everyone nuts.” 

“And he didn’t make the FBI?” Darcy asked, intrigued. 

“No,” Barton smirked. “He knocked up his girlfriend towards the end of the school year. He never got out of town.” 

“So you’re saying she should go back to rub her success in everyone’s face,” Steve summed up. Bucky was smirking. 

“Didn’t you mention something about doing that when we finished school?” he asked his friend. Darcy’s eyes widened as Steve groaned. 

“And I have since grown out of that need for petty revenge,” he said, trying for captain voice and largely failing. Bucky rolled his eyes. 

“Grown out of it, sure,” Bucky snickered. “You put peanut butter on the handle of Tony’s socket wrench yesterday because he called you ‘Capsicle’ again.” 

Steve blushed. 

Despite being intrigued and wanting to know more about this, she turned to Barton and left the two friends silently squabbling. “They wouldn’t believe me anyway,” she told him. “I mean, I could tell them I’m working here and they’d probably all snidely tell each other that I’m probably working in the cafeteria.” 

“But you’re all over social media,” he said. “Aren’t you always talking about tumblr? Wouldn’t that clue them in? You post pictures all the time of the team.” 

“That’s the official Avengers stuff Maria has me doing for your PR, not my own stuff,” she explained to him. “I can’t post anything about you guys on my own stuff. Secrecy and safety, you know? As far as I know, they all think the same thing my parents think—that I work as an assistant to one of the scientists. Well, Mom and Dad know I work for Jane specifically but they don’t know much more than that and I seriously doubt any of them actually got anything else from my parents.” 

“Such as…?” Jane asked curiously. 

“That you’re dating Thor or that I was with you when Thor first landed in New Mexico,” she answered. “Mom and Dad have no idea so there’s really no reason anyone else there should either.” 

“So basically you can’t actually tell them how awesome your life is because you don’t think they’d believe it,” Jane summed up. She frowned. “That sucks.” 

“It’s not worth it,” Darcy said. 

“So, okay, I get that and I even get why you’re not going,” Barton said. “What I don’t get is why you keep glaring at the invite like it personally offended you.” 

Darcy groaned. “Because the invite went to my parents house and they opened it cause its been, you know, ten years since they got anything from the school,” she explained and Barton’s eyes widened as he realized where this was going. “When they saw what it was, they decided to help me out by replying to the RSVP so I wouldn’t have to pay postage or something. So the school thinks I’m going. With a plus one.” 

“‘With a plus one.’” Steve asked and apparently that was enough to get his attention off his staring contest with Bucky. “Wait, what? Who are you dating?” He, Bucky, Jane, and Barton all looked baffled.

“No one,” she assured them. She made a face. “I may have failed to notify my parents about the blow up with Ian so they were under the impression we were still together.” 

“Well, that’s…” Steve trailed off as the other three looked on unhappily. 

“Yeah.” 

Ian had been HYDRA. He’d been one of the nicer HYDRA agents, from what they could discern, but that hadn’t made up for the fact he had been HYDRA and had been tasked with getting as close to Jane as he could through Darcy. Jane, fortunately, had never trusted Ian as Darcy had so in this, his plan had largely failed. Darcy, however, now had a scar on her abdomen from where he’d stabbed her after the whole fiasco in DC came to light.

“So…you _are_ going,” Barton said after a few moments of silence. 

“When I informed my mother I had had no intention of going, she went on about how excited they were to see me and how I don’t come home enough and how rude it would be to cancel after RSVPing and all sorts of mom stuff that made for a very well-done guilt trip,” she answered. She sighed. “So yes, I’m going. I made my flight reservations this morning.” 

“Hence the Glaring of Doom,” Jane nodded in understanding. 

“Who are you taking with you?” Steve asked, looking…disturbed. Bucky and Barton had both gone into what she’d dubbed ‘Sniper Mode.’Neither was moving, barely blinking, and both had completely blank faces as they stared at her. 

“What?” She blinked at him. 

“Who are you taking with you?” he repeated. “You said you have to go and your mom said a plus one…” 

“I’m not going with anyone,” she shrugged. “I figure I’ll just tell them my date had to bail. My parents will understand if I say it’s for work and my classmates won’t care. Well, actually, they probably won’t be surprised and will tell each other it was because the guy didn’t want to be seen with me.” 

“You really think that poorly of them?” Bucky asked, a frown on his face again. 

Darcy hesitated. “Not all of them,” she finally conceded. “But unless things have drastically changed, the majority will go with the queen bee and class king. This really is NOT my idea of a fun time. The only redeeming quality is going to be the booze—it’ll be nice to actually be able to watch everyone get plastered without the fear of the police raiding us.”

Barton snickered. 

~~*~~

She should have known that wouldn’t be the end of it.

Her reunion wasn’t until May and she’d gotten the invite and made the flight reservations in March. Whenever she’d be reminded of the impending shindig, she’d pray a disaster struck she couldn’t get out of and then feel guilty about praying for such a thing.

Rinse, lather, repeat. 

It was towards the end of April she’d gotten the itinerary and information on the reunion, including the shirts her mother had apparently ordered for her and her “plus one.” It started her thinking on what, exactly, she’d need for the trip.

She’d be taking vacation time to visit with her parents, in addition to the reunion. So she needed clothes that ranged from tank tops and shorts to long sleeves, jeans, and sweaters. The area of Colorado she grew up in had completely bipolar weather. It wasn’t uncommon to get snow one day and then scorching heat the next. Luckily she had access to a washer and dryer so she could get away with three or four outfits to mix and match. 

For the reunion, though…

It was apparently a two day event, with a mixer on Friday and a full morning of activities, including a picnic on the football field on Saturday. The end of it all was special dinner banquet at a local restaurant that evening. The notes included said semi-casual for the mixer and the banquet but the activities was apparently “casual.”

For the activities she planned to just wear one of the nicer jeans/shorts she had and the t-shirt. She might cut the shirt up, wear a tank-top underneath or something, she wasn’t sure. The mixer and dinner though she had no idea what to wear. 

“Wear that nice outfit you had on for my conference in France,” Pepper suggested when Darcy had voiced this dilemma at their weekly girls-only lunch one day. 

“That’s too nice for these people,” Darcy immediately said, making a face. “Besides, they’ll think I’m just playing dress up.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Wanda frown and reign in the red that was twisting in her hand. Some days, she knew, her curiosity could catch her powers and things happened. She smiled at the younger girl and she smiled slightly back, relaxing a bit. 

“But it looked good on you,” Jane was arguing when she turned back to her friend. “Even Thor thought you looked good and he barely even notices what we wear.” 

“While that is true, Thor also thinks I look good in sweats and a tank top,” she reminded her. Jane made a face. 

“You need something nice and semi-casual for both of the evening events, correct?” Natasha, who until then had been silently watching the exchange, said. Darcy nodded. The redhead checked her watch, checked her phone, and then smiled at Jane, Pepper, and Wanda. “I’m stealing your assistant for the afternoon to find something. You’re all welcome to join us.” 

Which was how Darcy found herself traipsing all over town with the other four women to find two dresses for the mixer and banquet. Of course, they didn’t stop at just the dresses, Pepper pointing out she would need shoes to match and Jane of all people coming up with the idea of new jewelry. 

“What are you going to do with your hair?” Wanda asked on the way back to the Tower. “Are you going to straighten it or…?” 

“Natural and down for the mixer,” Natasha instructed in a no-nonsense tone. “Bun at the bottom for the banquet.”

“And what about my make-up?” she asked, honestly curious what the Widow thought. 

“Light and simple,” she outlined. She paused and then added, “A bit more than what you did for the conference in Belgium.” 

“You weren’t even at the conference in Belgium, how do you know what I looked like?!” she exclaimed. 

“What makes you think I wasn’t in Belgium?” 

Darcy opened her mouth and then closed it, brow furrowing. “Are you fucking with me?” she finally asked. 

Natasha just smiled serenely back at her. 

~~*~~

As the days grew closer, Darcy found herself getting surprisingly nostalgic. She was going through the pictures on her Facebook from high school, laughing at how dorky the few people she’d actually gotten along with had been. She’d kept in Facebook-contact with them over the years but that was it. She hadn’t seen them in person in years. The person she’d been closest to, Mark, had been posting his own nostalgic memories and more than once she’d had to stifle a snicker as he recalled something that had happened. 

Quite a lot of those instances he’d tagged her in, as she’d been at least partially responsible for them. 

“ _of all the shit we did in high school, nothing beats when Darcy managed to get the principals car up on the roof by taking it apart and putting it back together,_” he’d posted the day before she was set to fly home. The replies to that had been numerous but it was the final one she read that finally made her laugh so hard Jane wandered over to read. 

“Who’s Larry Karson?” she asked, reading his comment. 

“My old principal,” she answered and waited. 

“You put your principals car on the roof?” 

“I was great at shop class,” she smirked and Jane laughed. 

“ _The best thing about that senior prank was that my car had never run better._ ” 

~~*~~

Darcy sighed as she made her way towards the front of the plane. When she’d made her flight plans, she had signed up for economy class seats because even though she probably could have afforded business class, she was more interested in paying off her student loans. 

She should have known Pepper or Tony would have had her upgraded. 

She was almost to the ridiculousness of her first class seat when a voice across the aisle made her stop and stare. 

“Hi, Darcy...”


	2. Ellie and Elizabeth Lewis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy was not expecting this...any of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who voted! It was pretty obvious who you all wanted and while I REALLY thought about making it a triad, in the end I went with majority. 
> 
> That said, I may one day do "AUs" with all the other options.... 
> 
> Final note, this has been expanded into 8 parts instead of the 5 I had been thinking. ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

Darcy stared at the smugly smiling semi-super soldier currently sitting in the seat next to her own. “Wha…what are you doing here?” 

“We decided you needed backup,” Buck told her easily. His eyes flickered behind her and she realized she was holding up the stewardess. She quickly slid into her space, waiting until the woman disappeared towards the front of the plan before looking back at Bucky. 

“Backup? It’s a high school reunion, not an assassination!” she hissed, being careful to keep her voice down. Nevertheless, the business man behind her must have been paying attention because she suddenly heard him have a hysterical coughing fit. Luckily, it seemed more laughter than anything else…

“Hey, I go where Steve points,” Bucky said quietly, holding up his hands. His eyes were glancing back too with amusement so she knew she wasn’t the only one who’d heard the man. He focused back on her with a slight grin. “And Natasha. I tend not to argue with her when she tells me to do something.” 

“Oh please, you can take Natasha,” she said, though in her heart she knew it was likely to be more of a draw than anything else. 

“Not if she has the element of surprise,” he replied dryly. “That’s one thing she definitely excelled at when I trained her.” 

Darcy snickered, recalling the one and only time she’d seen Natasha sneak up on Bucky. He’d been in the kitchen cooking when she’d slipped in behind him. It had been a good day, which meant instead of attacking the person, he’d jumped about a foot in the air and squealed when the Widow had tickled him in the side to get him to move. 

The best part was Darcy was fairly certain Natasha hadn’t even been trying to sneak up on him. 

“So you’re here to, what? Watch my six?” 

He stared at her a moment before mumbling something too low for her to hear. Louder, he told her “I am here to make sure you have a memorable high school reunion.” It sounded rehearsed and given his comments about Natasha and Steve, she had a feeling she knew just who he had been quoting. 

“Well,” she said as the stewardess got up and started in on the safety rules and plans for emergencies. “With you here, that’s bound to happen.” 

~~*~~

The trip was pretty quiet. Bucky didn’t like flying, not even on the quinjet, so she was careful to leave him alone unless he initiated contact. She herself actually loved flying—minus the screaming of a kid in economy class. A quarter of the way through the four hour flight, she saw Bucky grimace at the crying, faint though it was, and put on his headphones. The look of bliss as the sound was even further muffled by the music made her grin and follow suit. 

Another hour in and he pushed a paper towards her with a nine square graph and an ‘X’ in the top left corner. Smirking, she put her ‘O’ in the bottom left. Bucky smiled and put another ‘X’ in the top left. Darcy immediately put her O in between the two X’s. Bucky outright smirked and put his next X in the bottom right. She blinked, staring at the graph. No matter which way she did, he was going to win. Annoyed, she put her O in the center and watched as he smugly put his final ‘X’ in middle right. She pouted. Tic-tac-toe continued for about half an hour before she got annoyed at losing so often and switched to connect the dots. He grasped it quickly. Four games later she was pouting again. 

Bucky smirked and watched as she went back to her tablet. She had several fics on it she wanted to get caught up on. She could feel him watching her for a few minutes before he pulled out his own book. She glanced at him and blinked a few times. “Seriously?” she asked and he glanced back at her. “That thing is better used as a doorstop.” 

Lips twitching, he didn’t reply and simply went back to reading War and Peace. Shaking her head, she returned to her fics. 

They remained like that until the in-flight meal at which she sat up, moving so she was facing him. He did so as well and once the stewardess had moved on, they started chatting. They discussed what she was looking forward to (seeing her family) and what she was not looking forward to (the activities they had planned for the reunion on Saturday). She talked about her parents and her younger sisters, Ellie and Katherine. He in turn told her a bit about Becca, Rachel, and Joyce, his own younger sisters, and everything he’d learned about them and the lives they’d lived. 

“My nephew is older than me now, a grandfather in his own right,” he murmured quietly so as not to be overheard. “I’ve met him—he’s a good man.”

She resisted the urge to grab his hand, not knowing if it would be received well. Instead, she gave him a lopsided smile. “What did he think when he met you?” 

“That his mother had had a horrible sense of humor, naming him after me and not Steve,” he snorted. She frowned and he assured her, “It’s not the soldier thing. It’s the fact he looks more like Steve than he does me or Becca—blond, blue eyed, tall, pale skin. He told me after though that he’d always considered it an honor to be named for me…and that he still does.”

Bucky looked like he couldn’t quite grasp that and this time she didn’t hesitate, reaching out to squeeze his hand. He paused, looked at their enjoined appendages and she realized she’d grabbed the disguised cybernetic one. Then, so tentatively she was half convinced she’d imagined it, he squeezed back. 

Smiling, she pulled back and dug into her meal. 

~~*~~

When they finally arrived in Denver, she wasn’t terribly surprised to find it was drizzling. One look out the window and Bucky was pulling a windbreaker from his carry-on.He threw it over his head and his hair got slightly pulled out of his low ponytail. She smiled as it stuck up every which way from the static electricity. She resisted the urge to smooth it down, only pointing it out so he could do it himself.

“I need to find a rental car place,” Bucky said, eying the train from the gates to the waiting terminal. They were waiting for people to get off. 

“Why?” she asked, frowning. 

“So I can drive to wherever we’re going,” he said and then paused himself. “Where _are_ we going, by the way?” 

“Southern Colorado,” she told him. “And my mom is picking me up in my car. You’re coming with us. 

“Darce…” 

“You’re here as backup, right?” she asked as they were finally able to get into the train. “Which means you have to stick at my side. Can’t do that in two separate vehicles…and it’s way cheaper this way too.” 

“I…you weren’t expecting me,” he tried. She frowned, wondering why he was protesting this so much. A thought occurred to her. 

“Do you…do you want a getaway car?” 

“What?” he asked, looking confused. 

“Is that why you want to rent a car, so you can get away if you need to?” 

“No,” he said slowly. “I just…I didn’t want to impose.” 

And then she realized this wasn’t a Winter Soldier thing—this was a 40’s thing. 

“You’re not imposing,” she assured him, though mentally she knew her mother would probably have words for her. “You’re here for me. Ergo, I’m gonna make sure you’re taken care of while you’re protecting me.” 

“I…” 

“Nope, not gonna win this,” she said. She paused and then added with a slight smirk, ”Do I need to call Natasha and Steve and have them make it an order?” 

He made a face at her but, just as she suspected he would, he dropped it.

Getting out of the airport was, as usual, a complicated mess. It took them the better part of ten minutes to find the correct luggage return. After that, they had to push and shove to try and actually get the damn things. Darcy finally got pulled back by her arm and Bucky waded into the fray. She kinda felt bad about that because his metal arm had to have hurt when he elbowed his way to the carousal. Eventually though he had both his duffel bag and her suitcase. 

“Where are we meeting your mother?” he asked as they left the luggage section. 

“The fountain,” she answered and Bucky nodded, looking around as they made their way towards the location she was talking about. It had just come into view when Darcy heard a familiar squeal right before a blur of blond came rushing through the crowd to crash into her. 

“Darcy!” 

“Ellie!”

She and her sister hugged and jumped up and down slightly, both entirely too excited to see each other. It would have been worse if Katherine had been there too. 

“I didn’t know you were coming with mom!” Darcy told her. “I thought you had finals?” 

“I do but they don’t start till Tuesday,” she said, shrugging as she pulled back. “And since mom was driving, I could study on the drive. Kat was not a happy girl about that—she had school.” 

Darcy beamed, absolutely thrilled to see her sister. They had never been close when they were kids, too many years between them, but as they’d both grown older that had changed. Darcy now considered her one of her closest friends outside of the Avengers and Jane. Same with Katherine, who was a junior in high school. 

“Darcy? Why is he staring at us?” Ellie asked and Darcy blinked before realizing Bucky was indeed staring. 

“What?” she asked. He blinked at her. 

“Your sister is blond,” he said and the girls stared back at him a moment before they both burst out laughing. 

“Observant one you got there, Darce,” Ellie giggled. “Yeah, I’m blond. Darcy and Katherine are not. Both our parents were born blond and it grew darker as they got older.” 

“Kat and I, however, were born with full heads of brown hair,” Darcy agreed. “Elli’s hair is totally darker than when we were kids though. She looks bald in half her baby pictures. By the way, where’s Mom?” 

“At the car so we wouldn’t have to park,” she answered. “Speaking of, it’s a good thing we brought the jeep.” 

“Yeah, I forgot to mention he was coming, didn’t I?” she asked, to cover for Bucky’s surprise attendance. 

“Yeah…and I seem to recall you telling mom and dad you broke up with your boyfriend,” she said and it was so obvious she was fishing, Darcy had to wince. 

“New boyfriend,” Bucky said before she could. He smiled charmingly at Ellie. “I’m James Barnes. She didn’t want to say anything because she wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it due to work.”

Ellie’s eyebrows rose but she took the lie hook, line, and sinker. Darcy gave him a look and he shrugged. She vowed to get his reason for the lie later, when they were alone. 

Some days, she swore her entire life was just a series of tropes occurring one after the other. 

“Well, it’s great you were able to make it, I’m Ellie, though I think you figured that out,” Ellie said. She turned to Darcy. “Let’s go, Mom’s probably getting impatient to see you.” 

They headed towards the pick up curb, where true to Ellie’s words, Darcy’s mother was impatiently in front of her jeep. Tall, skinny, but with the same dark hair and blue eyes as her oldest and youngest daughters, she was muttering under her breath as she paced. At the sight of them coming out of the airport, though, she dove after her eldest daughter and wrapped her in a hug. 

“Darcy!” she exclaimed before babbling about how happy she was to see her and how her father wished he could have come and how exciting it was to have Darcy there for a whole week…

“I think I see where she gets it,” she faintly heard Bucky tell Ellie, who laughed delightedly. 

“You have no idea,” her sister informed him. “Wait till you meet Dad and Kat.”

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘meet Dad?’” Mom asked, turning to Ellie and letting go of Darcy. She stopped when she saw Bucky standing there. “Well, hel-lo gorgeous.”

Darcy was torn between embarrassment for her mother’s rather lascivious tone and the intense blush taking over Bucky’s face. 

“Mother!” Ellie laughed. “What about Dad?” 

“I might be married but I’m not dead,” she shot back, still not taking her eyes off Bucky. “Who are you, handsome?” 

“Uh, James, ma’am,” he stuttered. “James Barnes.”

“Nice to meet you James,” Elizabeth Lewis replied with a tone Darcy knew well. She groaned but that didn’t stop her mother. “Are you sleeping with my daughter? Cause if so, her taste in men has gotten much better since we last talked.”

Darcy was suddenly and viciously reminded of why she never usually brought boyfriends home to meet her parents.

“I, uh,” Bucky stammered, eyes flickering from Darcy, to her mother, to her sister, back to Darcy, and then settling on her mother again. “No?” 

“You don’t sound so sure of that.” 

“No,” he said, much more firmly. “I…respect her too much.” 

“Don’t,” Darcy warned before her mother could ask. “We…are not there.”

Her mother studied the two of them a moment before nodding and dropping it. She was grateful, if only because she was fairly certain Steve would kill her for breaking Bucky after he’d improved so much. 

“Alright, is that your stuff?” Mom asked and Bucky, obviously relieved, held up the duffel and suitcase he’d insisted on carrying. She got a mental image of him using them like Steve’s shield and had to resist the urge to snicker. Mom smiled at him approvingly before turning to her. “A hot gentleman, you scored well, Darce.” 

“Mother.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Come on, let’s load these in the back then you two can cuddle in the backseat.” 

Darcy’s mother went to the drivers side, slipping in so she could open the back door. Ellie gave them a sympathetic look and slipped in the passenger front seat, murmuring what Darcy really hoped was admonishments to the woman. Bucky, still red, maneuvered to the back of the car and carefully put the two pieces of luggage inside. 

“Your mother is…something else,” Bucky told her. Darcy slammed the trunk shut, probably a bit harder than she had planned. 

“She likes to meddle,” she said, allowing the annoyance to bleed through. “And she tends to speak her mind.” 

“I didn’t say I didn’t like her, just that she’s something else,” Bucky assured her. 

“Well, that makes on of us that likes her right now,” she grumbled and Bucky cracked a smile. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be better prepared for her now,” he told her quietly, wrapping his arm around her in a hug. “I was just caught off guard.” 

“Uh huh,” she murmured, leaning into him for a moment before moving away. “And don’t think we’re not gonna talk about the whole ‘new boyfriend’ thing either, mister.” 

Bucky winced. “I panicked?” he offered. “It never occurred to me we’d need some sort of explanation…” 

“Later,” she told him before he could get anything else out. “When my mother is not liable to jump in and make commentary.” 

“Deal,” he agreed. 

They moved around, slipping into the backseat. “You know, I’m not that old,” her mother said as they slipped out of the pick-up zone.” 

“What?” Darcy asked, confused. “Who said you were old?” 

“No one,” she replied. “I just meant you don’t have to ‘spare me’ the visual. If you wanted to kiss her, James, you could have. I wouldn’t have gotten upset.” 

Darcy sighed. This was going to be a long drive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, I'm imagining Emily Bett Rickards as Ellie and Lauren Graham as Elizabeth. If that helps. :)


	3. Katherine, Weston, Grams, & Aunt Winni

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky arrive home with her mom and older sister to find a few surprises...and more embarrassment for the Winter Soldier...

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

It was a ridiculous drive down to Crystal Creek. First off, Mom insisted on telling Darcy and Bucky all about what was going on in the town, including the fact the seniors prank still hadn’t managed to one-up Darcy’s. 

“Well of course they didn’t,” Ellie scoffed. “No one at the school is as crazy as her…possibly Kat. There are bets as to what she is going to do next May.” 

“I’m so proud,” Darcy snickered as Bucky side-eyed her. 

“Do I want to know?” he asked, just loud enough her mother and sister heard in the front seat. 

“You don’t know about Darcy’s senior prank?” Ellie asked, turning to look at him. 

“I was trying to keep him from running off,” Darcy offered in her own defense, though it was half-hearted at best. 

Ellie smirked and the next thing she knew, the other two Lewis women were telling Bucky every embarrassing public story about Darcy. 

Considering it was a four hour trip, that meant a LOT of stories. 

~~*~~

Bucky was doubled over in laughter, eyes streaming with tears, by the time they made it to the sleepy little town she’d lived in since she was twelve. Once a pit stop on the old railroads, now it was just another small college town in the midwest. Most of the people in the area had come either for farming or to work at the college. Their kids and grandkids and great grandkids had built the town up to what it was but there was saying here—’once you got out, never come back because you’d never leave.’

Darcy’s own parents had fallen into that trap. Both had left town, gone to school in Colorado Springs. Her mother had been from another town nearby but her father was from here. They’d known each other only vaguely from high school sports games. When they’d met at UCCS, though, they’d fallen in love and gotten married. They’d raised their family up in Springs until her grandfather died. Then, when they’d come back for the funeral, they found out the local school was hiring both a History and a fifth grade teacher.

Her parents were both. 

In the end, Weston and Elizabeth had moved their family back to Crystal Creek to be closer to Grams, her dad’s mom. Grams lived just down the block and most of her after school memories were of her grandmother watching her and her sisters while her parents dealt with their various school functions. 

Being the daughter of a local, even one who’d gone away and come back, had helped her make friends in school. They were few and far between, sure, because by the time she showed up most of the kids already had their cliques they’d had since kindergarten. Nevertheless, a few of the other new kids had welcomed her with open arms. 

Then the puberty stick whacked her over the head and that all changed. 

Shaking off those thoughts, she watched Bucky as he finally calmed down from her sister’s rendition of Darcy’s final presentation in speech class. He seemed…lighter. Happier. She smiled to herself, grudgingly deciding that she wouldn’t kill her mother and sister for all the stories…though punching was definitely still on the table. 

“Here we are,” Mom chirped as she pulled into the driveway. “And looky, we have company.” 

“School’s already out?” Darcy frowned, seeing Kat waiting impatiently in front of the house. 

“No,” Mom answered, shaking her head. “She’s lucky I’m not going to ground her.” 

“She only has an hour left and it’s study hall,” Ellie pointed out. 

“She still needs to be in school,” Mom said firmly.

“Don’t give her a hard time, Mom,” Darcy pleaded. “You know she hasn’t seen me even longer than you guys.” 

Mom relented, though she still didn’t appear thrilled that Kat was bouncing towards the stopping car. Dressed in ripped jeans, a sleeveless t-shirt, with a beany over her braided pigtails, she was more obviously Darcy’s sister than Ellie. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Bucky looking between her and Kat in amusement. 

“No,” she warned him and he laughed. Shaking her head, she got out of the car and braced herself. 

“DARCY!” was all the warning she got before she was flat on her back, Kat on top of her and laughing like a hyena. 

“Kat, I love you, but I swear to god if you threw me in the mud…” 

“I didn’t,” she assured he, leaning up. “Hi!” 

“Get off!” she laughed and they scrambled to their feet. Darcy glanced back to find her sister hadn’t lied, she’d managed to get them just slightly off to the side of the mud pile along the driveway. She shook her head but grabbed her sister and crushed her in a hug anyway. 

Kat had always been more like Darcy than Ellie had been. Ellie had been the smart, dutiful, well-behaved daughter, who kept her head down and did what she was told without much complaint. Kat and Darcy…not so much. Oh they were both plenty smart but they tended to get into way more mischief than their parents probably wanted. Between their sense of humor and the fact they couldn’t just let an injustice stand, they’d both made names for themselves in town. “Those Lewis girls, why can’t they be more like their sister and father?” was something had been uttered more than once. Mom was a teacher and though she was very similar to her daughters in blunt honesty and temperament, she was also better able to keep her mouth shut when need be. 

Of course, Grams and Auntie Winni were just as bad, if not worse, so the town should really be used Lewis women by now. 

“When’d you get out of school, Katherine?” Mom asked as Bucky came around the jeep and looked at her in amusement. He gently patted down her back, getting off the dirt as Kat’s eyes widened with feigned innocence. 

“I had a cough,” she said and the gave the fakest of fake coughs. “See? Mrs. Miller let me come home last hour.” 

Darcy and Ellie snickered as Mom sighed in exasperation. Mrs. Miller was the school nurse and Gram’s kooky best friend. Darcy wouldn’t be surprised if the batty old lady had urged Kat to fake being sick so she could come and see Darcy return home. 

“And who’s the stud?” Kat asked, changing the subject. She zeroed in on Bucky, giving him a slow look up and down. 

“James Barnes,” Darcy answered with a laugh as Bucky stared at the younger girl in bemusement. “Down girl.”

“Off limits, Darcy’s claimed him!” Ellie called from where she was helping her mother with the various things they’d picked up on the drive up to Denver. Darcy hadn’t even noticed them until half way through the trip home. 

Kat whistled. “Nice,” she said approvingly. She smirked. “You are more than welcome to our shower.”

“Kat!” Darcy exclaimed, feeling her cheeks turning pink. 

“What? He is!” she grinned. “Just make sure he gets the small towels.” 

With that sage teenage advice, she flounced back towards their mother and sister to help with the bags. Darcy pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to the man her seventeen year old sister had been leering at.

Bucky was shaking with laughter. She smacked him. “Don’t encourage her,” she scolded. 

“Sorry, I just…so much suddenly makes sense,” he said, still snickering. 

She rolled her eyes.

“Alright, you two, help me put this food away,” Mom ordered, motioning to Ellie and Kat. “Darce, show Hottie McHottie to your room.” 

Darcy sighed as the three women disappeared inside the door to the two floor house. She went to go and then realized Bucky was not with her. She turned to find him staring at her, slightly wide-eyed. She frowned a moment before realizing what had startled him.

“Don’t make it a thing,” she advised quietly, going back and grabbing his hand. She thought about her childhood bedroom and made a face. “Trust me, us sharing a room is NOT gonna be a sexy thing.” 

He blinked at her and it was like a switch had been flipped. “You sure about that, Doll?” he asked lowly and she shivered before throwing it off and tugging him towards the house. 

Darcy’s room was in the attic. She’d lived there since she was about thirteen and her parents had agreed to let the younger girls have their own rooms if Darcy moved into the attic or basement. Since the laundry room was in the basement, she’d chosen to go up rather than down. Also, the attic was bigger. 

The summer after she turned sixteen her parents had installed a half bathroom for her up there and her closet actually became an actual space, instead of the cabinet they’d found at the thrift store. That had been the last change done to the space until she went to college. Luckily, most of her high school paraphernalia had been boxed up and was in storage, otherwise he’d get to deal with her emo teenage phase. 

“You really liked foreign cities, didn’t you?” he asked when they got inside, Darcy firmly shutting the door behind them. She knew it would set tongues wagging among the other women but she didn’t care. She’d been so focused on the horrors of a high school reunion that she’d completely forgot about the horrors of staying with her family. Admittedly, it wouldn’t have been as bad if she’d come alone but still…

“I wanted to travel the world,” she told him, watching as he studied a poster of London next to a poster of Dubai. Her lips twisted wryly. “Made it to London just in time for evil elves. Kinda put me off going anywhere else…” 

“I bet,” he snorted, turning back to her. He hesitated. “I’m sorry about all this. I wasn’t thinking.” 

Her brow furrowed a moment before it cleared in understanding. “Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “I probably would have blurted out the same thing if I’d been put on the spot like that.” 

“Yeah, but now your family…” 

“They’ll handle it,” she told him. Her eyes narrowed. “And don’t think for a second you’re doing something noble and sleeping on the floor.” 

He stiffened. “But—” 

“Nope, it’s a queen, we might be a bit snug but it wouldn’t be the first time we slept together.” 

“That was on a couch during movie night,” he argued. “It’s different.” 

“Yeah, we won’t have Steve alternating between pleasure at the sight and disapproving about it,” she snickered. Bucky rolled his eyes. 

“You know what I meant,” he scolded lightly. “This is…different.” 

“Not if we don’t make it different,” she insisted stubbornly. “Bucky, this is our bed, now we lay in it.” 

Bucky sighed. “Clint never should have gotten you that demented Saying of the Day calendar.” 

~~*~~

After stowing their stuff on the small sofa and her dresser, Darcy and Bucky headed back downstairs. Mom was already beginning dinner, she could smell it the moment she opened the door to the attic. Bucky perked up and she hid a smile—it was no secret among the Avengers and various support staff that the Winter Soldier had a deep abiding love of home-cooked food. Evils of the world wished they knew what he’d do for food that wasn’t from a restaurant. 

“And the best thing is Mom typically cooks enough for a small army,” she told him with a smirk. “Cause half the time she never knows who’s actually gonna show up so she makes enough for about a dozen people just in case. I ate a lot of leftovers growing up.”

Bucky’s grin widened even more and she laughed softly as they stepped into the kitchen. “Can I do anything to help, ma’am?” he asked instantly and Darcy watched as her mother turned around, a meat cleaver in one hand and a piece of pork in the other. 

“You cook?” 

“I’m just learning,” he admitted. “But Darcy doesn’t seem to have any problems with what I’ve made so far.” 

“He’s a lot better than Steve,” she put forth. Wanting to change the subject because her mother looked about ready to inquire who Steve was, she asked “Are you making schnitzel?” 

“I am,” Mom agreed. Darcy did a little danced—she loved her mom’s schnitzel and they didn’t have it very often cause mom hated having to thin the pork. Elizabeth studied Bucky a moment and then nodded. “Okay, Hottie McHottie, put those muscles to use and smash this.” 

She pointed out a plate of pork about three feet high and handed over the meat cleaver before turning back to mixing the bread crumbs and spices. Bucky looked down at her. “That nickname’s gonna stick, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, sorry,” she said, not actually all that sorry. Bucky laughed. 

“Better some other things I’ve been called,” he replied and moved forward to pound some meat. 

That sounded so wrong, she thought mentally with a snicker. Bucky’s eyes slid over to her as he worked the meat (she snorted) and he smirked knowingly at her. Turning pink, she turned back to her mother. 

Elizabeth was smirking at her too.

Scowling at the older woman, she marched over to the refrigerator and pulled out the makings of a salad. Matching snickers from her mother and Bucky met her. 

She wasn’t sure if she was happy or terrified her mother and Bucky seemed to be getting along so well.

~~*~~

Kat joined her about halfway through cutting the massive amounts of lettuce. Ellie wandered in, glasses perched on top of her head, just as the two brunettes had finished the salad. 

“I missed prep?” she asked, blinking as she took them all in. 

“Hottie McHottie is pounding the meat for me,” Mom answered and there was a chorus of snorts and snickers from pretty much everyone except the blonde. “I don’t want to know,” she decided after a moment. 

“I’m fairly certain you’re right about that,” a new voice said and Darcy whirled around with a shriek. 

“Dad!” She tumbled over to him and he easily caught her. 

“Baby girl,” he greeted her, voice muffled by her hair. “How was the flight?” 

“Shorter than normal thanks to Bucky,” she answered. 

“Bucky?” the entire family chorused. She winced, forgetting he’d kept introducing himself as James. 

“Nickname,” the man in question answered, wiping his hands from where he’d been washing them. He held out a hand towards her dad. “James Barnes, sir. I also sometimes go by Bucky.” 

Her dad gave him a long, measured look and Darcy was suddenly reminded of two things—one, her father taught history and two, he’d served in the army reserves as a sniper since he was eighteen. _Shit._

Thankfully, if her father recognized him, he didn’t show it. Instead, he accepted Bucky’s handshake and nodded, eyes crinkled in amusement as he looked between him to Darcy. “Are you the Bucky from Darce’ letters?” 

“Probably, sir,” he replied. Her father hummed but didn’t say anything more. Bucky on the other hand was side-eying her. “Do I want to know what you’ve said about me in these letters?” 

Darcy furiously thought through what she’d said in her letters home and then shook her head. “I don’t think it was too bad…” she said slowly. Except…she whipped her head over towards the smug looking Kat. “Not a word, Katherine!” 

Her sister merely grinned at her evilly. 

“Well, now I want to know,” Bucky said and her mother, sister, and father all laughed. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Kat promised in a sotto voce. Bucky winked at her in return and Darcy was treated to the not often seen blush of her youngest sister. She and Ellie exchanged grins. That would be funny to watch, if for no other reason than she knew Bucky would make certain the younger girl knew it was all in good fun and not at all serious. Katherine would either pout about that or take it in the manner he intended. She seriously hoped it would be the later. 

Though to be honest, she couldn’t wait to see what her old classmates thought when she showed up to the reunion with him in tow. Unless they had severely changed, there was probably going to be a ton of flirting from the women. She had a feeling Bucky would be ignored them, which would not endear him to the women…and would act as more of a challenge to the rest. 

“Alright, who is this handsome stranger in my son’s house?” a new voice said and Darcy twirled around to see her grandmother in the doorway, watching them all with a wicked grin.

“Grams!” she squealed and dashed forward, hugging the older woman and lifting her clear off the floor. Her father’s mother was shorter than Darcy, with wild white hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was in her nineties but often seemed to have more energy than even the students her parents both taught. 

“What am I, chopped liver?” another voice asked and she squealed into her grandmothers hair. 

“Cliche, Winni, very cliche,” father said lightly as her grandmother refused to let her go. 

“Well, that’s why they pay me the big bucks,” her aunt responded in kind. 

“The newspaper does not pay you to write cliche’s,” Ellie said and she could practically hear her aunt’s shrug. 

“You say potato,” she said and Ellie huffed. Her aunt apparently ignored this, adding, “Hey, Mom’s right though, who’s the hottie?” 

“I definitely see where she gets it,” Bucky mumbled as her mother and sisters all burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fancast time: in my head, Katherine is played by Alexandra Daddario and Weston is played by Mark Harmon. Grams is Betty White. Aunt Winni is played by Paige Turco.
> 
> That said, I REALLY want a banner of the family...
> 
> Also, posting without checking cause I won't have net for a while so I wanted to get it in while I could!


	4. Full Story...Darcy Style

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky clear up their story...then end up not needing it as much as they thought.

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

Dinner that evening was a lively affair, with the entire family in “fine form” as the saying went. Darcy finally had to resign herself to never hearing the end of stories about her the family felt the need to tell Bucky. He seemed to spend more time laughing during the meal than he did eating. Of course, he did have three portions, praising the cooks every time he went back for more. Her mother, of course, thought this was fantastic. Dad finally joked on the third time that Bucky was making him look bad. That had led to a half hour of the two of them telling stories of the various times her parents had cooked for the other after they’d first married—often with highly hilarious results. 

Despite the fact she had never been more embarrassed, she also couldn’t help but accept it for the simple fact she’d never seen Bucky as happy and relaxed as he was as they finished the meal. Pops and Mom both had to grade and Ellie and Kat both had school work to finish, so Grams and Aunt Winni both said goodbye. As Bucky accepted a hug goodbye from Grams with good humor, over his shoulder Darcy caught her aunt’s eye. The older woman grinned and held up two thumbs. Darcy’s cheeks pinked and she refused to acknowledge her approval in any other way. When Grams was almost out the door, she turned and winked at Darcy in full view of Bucky. 

She was suddenly realizing a downside of this charade—her family was completely charmed by her new “boyfriend.”

“Well, this will end well,” she mumbled. 

“Would you rather I act like a jackass?” Bucky asked in all seriousness as they went out the back to the creek that ran through the backyard of the property. 

“No,” she assured him. “And don’t worry about not talking to them after our ‘break up’ either. I’ll make it clear it was mutual and friendly.” 

He relaxed slightly and she smiled at the realization her family hadn’t been the only ones charmed by dinner. 

“So what’s the plan now?” he asked as they settled into the bench that her Dad had put near the water. There was a small metal fire pit as well and she could see Bucky eying it with interest. 

“We make a fire and then talk before my family all decide to join us,” she answered and he smiled slightly before getting up. Together they got a small fire going in no time before settling back on the bench. It took her several seconds to realize they’d settled into their default movie watching formation—her cuddled into his side, his arm around her shoulders. All that was missing was a blanket. She smiled. 

“Alright, I don’t think we’ll have trouble convincing them we’re dating,” she said after a moment. “But how do you want to do this? Just keep quiet about how we got together and all the backstory or…?” 

“It’s best to stick to as close to the truth as possible,” he said after a moment of thought. “We met at work. I’m in security. Do they know you work at the Tower?” 

“Yes,” she agreed.She bit her lip. “We met when you came to work and Jane’s boyfriend introduced you and your best friend/partner, Steve.” 

He laughed. “Sounds about right,” he agreed. “And you were instantly smitten.” 

It was a joke to him but it was so close to what had actually happened when they’d first met that she felt like she’d been tased. _He doesn’t know about the crush,_ she reminded herself. _And I grew out of it anyway so it’s not going to be a problem._

“Yeah,” she agreed and she knew he’d noticed the pause. Thankfully he didn’t press. She quickly tried to distract him. “Where was our first date?” 

“Coney Island, remember?” he said and she recalled the first time they’d gone out alone. Steve was supposed to have gone with them but he’d been pulled last minute for a mission. She still had the ridiculously tall stuffed bear he’d won at the rigged games. 

“So, that would mean we’ve been dating for…three months?” she asked, thinking back on the timeline. 

“Yup,” he agreed and the arm around her shoulder’s tightened slightly. “Heads up, your Dad’s coming.” 

She craned her head from where it had been pillowed against his shoulder to see her father striding over, his blue eyes studying them with a grim expression. Years of experience made her instantly scoot away from Bucky, straightening so there was about a foot of space between them. Her father’s expression flickered with a smug smile before it settled back to grim. He sat down across from them with out a word, studying Bucky. 

“You hurt my daughter and I don’t give a damn what your reputation says, Soldier, I will hunt you down and put a bullet in your brain,” he finally said with a set and eerily calm tone. Darcy gaped. 

“Yes, sir,” Bucky said instantly, tensing up at the obvious threat the other man possessed. She groaned, realizing her father never would have used “Soldier” unless he knew. 

“How long did it take you to figure it out?” she asked, resigned. Bucky looked interested in the answer as well. He didn’t relax but he obviously wasn’t tracking her father as a threat, not really. She wasn’t sure if she should be amused or insulted on her father’s behalf

“About ten seconds,” her father admitted with a wry smile. “Your mother took longer. Kat and Ellie don’t know, as far as I can tell. We won’t tell them.” 

“Mom figured it out?!” she asked, blinking. Dad’s demeanor relaxed.

“I was in the middle of grading a test when she suddenly turned in her desk and demanded to know if she was imagining your boyfriend’s eerie similarity to the Winter Soldier,” he told her dryly. At her expression, he scoffed. ”Don’t look so shocked. You’ll remember your mother’s minor in college was on 20th Century History.” 

“I…honestly forgot about that,” she said, annoyed with herself. 

“It may have taken me longer if my fifth graders hadn’t been doing research on historical figures. I have three girls and a boy doing their research on you,” Mom said, having crept up on them without Darcy noticing. She jumped slightly but Bucky didn’t move. He watched Mom as she sat down before flickering his eyes to her, silently asking if she was okay. She nodded then raised an eyebrow, asking the same of him. He hesitated a moment before nodding slowly. 

Neither noticed the amused looks her parents shot each other at the silent exchange. 

“How many are researching Steve?” Bucky asked, his shoulders slowly relaxing as her parents didn’t scream, yell, or threaten him again. 

“Ten,” she laughed and Bucky finally smiled. “And two are doing Tony Stark.”

Darcy and Bucky both snickered. “Stark is going to hate that,” she said.

“So you do know him,” Mom said triumphantly and Darcy realized suddenly she’d been tricked. Bucky relaxed completely, chuckling softly as she looked at her mother in annoyance. 

“You couldn’t have just asked?” she whined. 

“Would you have told me?” Mom asked in turn. 

“Yes.” 

“Really?” 

“You already know about Bucky and Steve,” she shrugged at her mother’s skeptical expression. “At this point I figure the cat is well and truly out of the bag.” 

“True,” her father said. “Speaking of which, full story any time on how you actually met.” 

He settled in, clearly willing to wait her out. She looked at Bucky and he nodded. 

“Okay, first things first, we’re not actually dating,” she told her parents. Their eyebrows hit the roof and she winced and pointed at her companion. “He panicked.” 

“Traitor,” he muttered, cheeks turning red. He cleared his throat. “Darcy was complaining about the comments from her classmates if she showed up alone after RSVPing with a plus one. So we decided I would come with her. She…may not have been told about this until I met her on the plane.” 

Her parents stared at them a moment before her mother broke down in laughter and her father began chuckling. 

“Who is ‘we?’” the older male asked after it became obvious her mother would not be calming down anytime soon without a distraction. 

“Steve, Natalia, Stark, Potts, Barton, Ross, Wanda, Pietro, Foster, and Thor,” he replied as her mother quieted down to listen. It was her turn to gape at him. His lips twitched. “And Wilson and Rhodes technically didn’t plan anything with us but they knew about it…and they kept laughing.” 

“Ross? Wanda? Pietro?” her father asked. 

“Wilson and Rhodes?” her mother added. 

“Ross is Betty Ross, Dr. Banner’s girlfriend,” Darcy answered. “Wanda Maximoff is Scarlet Witch. Pietro is her brother, Quicksilver. Wilson is Sam Wilson, the Falcon. Rhodes is James Rhodes, War Machine.” 

“So who’s idea was it for you specifically to come with?” 

“Natalia, Steve, Wanda, Foster, and Thor,” he answered her father. His eyes slid over to Darcy. “Pietro voted for himself but was vetoed on account of us wanting you to actually enjoy yourself. It came down to me, Steve, or Barton.”

“And you got voted in instead of the other two…why?” 

“I’m not actually sure,” he frowned. “Just that Steve insisted it couldn’t be him cause he’s too recognizable…and Barton flatly refused for some reason.” 

“Well, poo to him, I’m awesome,” she sniffed and Bucky smiled. 

“While all this is…fascinating,” her father broke in. “It still doesn’t entirely explain how you two actually met.” 

Darcy sighed. “So, remember that internship I took in New Mexico?” she asked. 

“Yes…” 

“It was with Dr. Jane Foster, an astrophysicist,” she said. “She hired me on full time after I graduated, remember, you met her at Culver.” 

“I remember,” her father agreed. “How does this tie in with the Avengers?” 

“Well…when Thor first came to Earth, Jane may have…hit him with her van?” she asked, rather than stated. She conveniently left out the fact she, technically, had been the one in the driver’s seat.

“And then you tased him,” Bucky added with a wicked grin. That was his favorite part of the story of how she met Thor. 

“Yes, I did,” she agreed proudly. At her parents looks, she huffed. “He was freakin’ me out!” 

“The story,” her mother said firmly. “Now.” 

“Jane had been working on finding a Einstein-Rosen bridge, which turns out to be the same thing as a Bifrost,” Darcy replied instantly, long having learned to obey that tone without question. “She’d been getting a lot of readings that looked promising so we went out to the middle of the desert and one of the bridges deposited a tall, buff guy in our path. Jane hit him with the van and when we went to check on him, he got up, was acting like he was drunk, and, well, I freaked out and tased him. Fast forward a couple days and Jane and Thor are falling head over heals and SHIELD shows up and steals all of Jane’s stuff—” 

“And Darcy’s iPod,” Bucky interjected with a grin. 

“—and my iPod which I eventually got back after I kept hacking Coulson’s laptop to open to the song ‘I’m Sexy and I Know It,’” she continued as if Bucky hadn’t spoken. “So, Thor is all mortal and no powers and trying to live with us as a human. Only Thor’s friends show up with news that Loki, Thor’s annoying brother, is trying to perform a coup and in order to keep Thor from interfering, Loki sent a giant fire-breathing mechanical robot to kill him. Which it did. Only Thor got his powers back cause he sacrificed himself and was worthy of Mew Mew again. Thor kicked the Destroyer’s ass and then after a inspiring kiss with Jane, Thor took off back to Asgard to deal with his brother. I stayed with Jane indefinitely and well…when Thor wound up with the Avengers, Jane and I got tagged to come along cause she’s dating him and where goes Jane, so goes my nation.” 

“You forgot the evil elves,” Bucky supplied helpfully. He scowled. “And Ian.” 

“Story.” That was her father and he didn’t seem impressed she’d ignored something Bucky felt was worth telling. Darcy sighed. 

“Jane and I found a…thingy that turned out to be a portal and Jane went through it and got infected with this thing called the Aether and when Thor found out, he came and got her to try and get it out of her cause it was really bad that she had it. Also, this evil elf, who so did not look as hot as Legolas or Thranduil, wanted it cause it was really powerful stuff. 

“So Thor and Jane and Loki, who agreed to help cause the evil elf killed their mom, went on a journey to get the Aether out of Jane…also, a bunch of crap was happening in the galaxy that could have ended really really badly for pretty much everyone not evil and Jane, Erik, Thor, Ian, and I fought them in London and stopped it all from happening. Afterward Thor came to live with us before he ended up joining the Avengers in New York and dragging us with. The end.” 

“Ian,” Bucky prompted. She scowled at him. He crossed his arms. “They deserve to know.” 

“Fine,” she huffed. “So Ian turned out to be HYDRA—” 

“What.” 

She winced. That tone from her father, coupled with the lack of question to the word, was never a good combination. 

“Yeah, he was trying to get to Jane through me and me being an idiot, I fell for it. When all the shit in DC went down, Ian tried to kill me. I tased him in the balls and Jane hit over the head with a fire extinguisher…then Thor electrocuted him for good measure.” She decided not to mention him stabbing her. 

“Remind me to send a candy basket to Thor and Jane,” her mother mentioned to her father. He grunted, not taking his eyes off Bucky. Clearly he was waiting to see if there was anything else Bucky thought they needed to know that Darcy wasn’t telling. 

“She’d been at the Tower for a couple months by the time I showed up,” he told her parents. He made a face. “I was trying to avoid her cause I was messed up and I didn’t think she needed my baggage. She yelled at me when I told her that and then slapped me. She’s one of the few in the Tower who never seemed to fear me even when she probably should have.” 

The look and tone of admiration when he said that last part had her turning pink. Her parents looked torn between amusement and exasperation. 

“So what do you do in the Tower?” her mother asked, brow furrowing. “You always just said you worked with Dr. Foster.” 

“And I do,” she agreed. “I’m Jane, Erik, Bruce, Betty, Helen Cho, and Stark’s Life Assistant. I make sure they get fed, sleep, take showers, take breaks, etc.” 

“So you don’t actually do any science with them?” 

“Not anymore, no, that’s the Minions,” she shrugged. She smirked. “And yes, that’s their official title. Stark put it in their contracts and everything so everyone knew the difference between me and them. Though after they didn’t stop Stark two months ago, it’s now in their contracts that if there’s even a remote possibility of explosions in one of their experiments, I have to be consulted. Which means I get explained the science…usually several times before I figure out what they’re talking about.” 

“Wait, you said your Stark’s assistant too?” her mother asked, frowning. Her father’s eyebrows went up. 

“Pepper saw what I was doing for Jane and Erik and that I started to do it for Bruce too. So she asked if I would do it for Stark as well and she’d pay me for all four of them,” she explained. “I do the same thing for Betty and Helen now that they’ve come on. Like I said, I just make sure they don’t keel over and die because they get into the science and forget to live.” 

“And Maria Hill, who is the handler for the Avengers, has her doing all our PR now, too,” Bucky interjected. “All the group social media stuff is her. Some of us have individual accounts but mostly we leave her to it.” 

“Well, it’s not like anyone else has the know-how, time, or common sense to do it,” she shrugged. 

“Maria’s working to make it official,” Bucky told her parents. “Have her be our face, not to mention everything else. Steve and I have stalled that though.” 

“Wait, what?” she asked, slightly hurt at this bit of news. She’d known from Jane that Maria had wanted her to be more active in the PR role but she hadn’t known the delay had come from them. 

“It’s only until your training with Natalia is done,” he assured her. “Once she says you can defend yourself properly, Steve will give Maria the go-ahead. It’s not gonna be an easy job and you’ll be in the public eye all the time as our spokeswoman. We want you protected before we put you out there.”

“For which I am extremely grateful,” her father interjected. To her he added, “You’re training with the Black Widow?” 

She made a face. “She calls it training, I call it getting bruised six ways to Sunday,” she grumbled. “And running. Lots and lots of running. It’s ridiculous how much running is involved.” 

“Doctor Who, really?” Bucky asked, amused. He and Steve both loved science fiction so she’d immediately introduced them to the British show. Both loved it almost as much as she did. 

“It felt fitting,” she shrugged.

Any further conversation was cut off when Ellie and Kat came outside, joining them at the fire pit. Kat, being more of a pyrokinetic than the rest of them, tended to the flames as they chatted. Bucky and Darcy told the edited story of how they met, as well as their “first date” when they were asked. Mom and Dad, in turn, told Bucky about how they had met. Ellie told them about her new boyfriend. Kat told the story of the first time Darcy was picked up for a date. It was nearing midnight before everyone finally retired for the night.

Darcy had been going on pure adrenaline from seeing her family by that point so when they got upstairs, she was dead on her feet. She almost didn’t notice when Bucky avoided getting into the bed with her. She finally got out, pretended to go to the bathroom, came back out and full on tackled him to the mattress.

“You sure?” he asked as she tugged the blankets up and over his butt. 

“Ye-es,” she said, her words broken with a yawn. She snuggled into his chest, not caring one iota about supposed ‘propriety.’ “Now shut up. Dad was talking about going to the Gator Farm tomorrow. He’ll probably wake us all up by seven.” 

“The Gator Farm?” he asked, confused, but Darcy was already out. She didn’t see him hesitate before finally succumbing to the mattress, wrapping an arm under her chest and back. His other arm went to the back of his head. Once comfortable and assured she wasn’t disturbed by his movements, he was out in minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kinda...ran away from me. I wasn't planning it and then I started typing and next thing I know, Darcy and Bucky are coming clean to her parents. Oops?
> 
> Also, as before I haven't had a chance to double check formatting and all that cause I'm posting this on my school internet before the students come in. I should be getting net in my new house sometime this week or next. Thanks!


	5. Acting the Tourist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy's family shows Bucky some of the more interesting tourist spots nearby.

  
[Artwork by UsedKarma](http://usedkarma.tumblr.com/post/144612568635/gift-for-jadelyntate-and-her-wintershock)

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

When they woke up the next morning, it was to the dulcet tones of her younger sister. 

“Wakey wakey, bacon and shakey! Time to get up, lovebirds!” she sang out and Darcy, feeling Bucky tense, tightened her grip on him in warning. Luckily, he didn’t jump out or do anything but Darcy made a mental note to talk to her sister about just walking into her room with Bucky around.

“Get. Out,” she growled as Bucky put a hand over his face. She poked her head over the man just in time to see her sister roll her eyes. 

“Well, it’s obvious someone didn’t get laid last night,” she huffed and bounced out of the room. Darcy groaned and flopped back down on her bed. 

“She always like that in the morning?” Bucky asked, voice gravelly with what she hoped was sleep and not the Soldier. 

“She was the bane of my existence in school,” Darcy agreed. “If I was trying to get a few more minutes, my parents sent her to sit on me.” 

“If they wanted you up, why’d they send her to sit on you?” he asked, the gravel slowly disappearing as he took his hand off his face to look down at her. 

“She’s heavier than she looks,” she told him matter-of-fact. 

“Hey!” they heard from out the door and both snickered. Kat poked her head back in the room, a scowl on her face. “What’s she neglecting to tell you is that I would sit on her head.” 

“Again, heavier than she looks,” Darcy repeated. 

“That might explain a lot,” Bucky mused and Kat burst out laughing as Darcy rolled over and started swatting at him. Chuckling, he rolled over himself and pinned her arms above her head so she’d stop hitting him. She became very aware suddenly that he was shirtless (though his wrist-watch that hid his metal arm was still on, thank God). 

“Annnnnnd that’s my cue to head downstairs and let everyone know you two are awake,” she faintly heard Kat say before the door closed. 

“Are we?” he asked, eyes amused as he stared down at her. They were still dark with sleep and she felt certain body parts sit up and take notice. She squirmed slightly, trying to get him to let go. 

“Yeah, I think we’re awake,” she said and his lips twitched before an odd look came to his face. He let her go without another word, moving swiftly to sit against the edge of the bed, arms on either side of his legs. She blinked, caught off guard by the change of mood. “You okay?” 

“Fine,” he said and his voice was low again. His head cocked. “Kat is getting scolded by your Dad.” 

She stared a moment. “One, your hearing is ridiculous, two, why?” 

“Your father’s aware I might have bad reactions to being surprised,” he said and his voice seemed to be lightening again as he sat there. “He’s not telling her that but he’s making it clear she can’t do that again. It doesn’t sound like he sent her.”

“He understands PTSD,” she nodded and made a mental note to thank her father when she had the chance. 

“We should get dressed and get down there,” he said, standing and stretching. She averted her eyes lest she make an embarrassing sound…again. His gaze slid over her a moment, a smug smile on his face, before he headed towards her half bath. 

“Take the shower first,” she advised before he got there. “I know you hate cold water and I can handle it if we run out.” 

“You sure?” he asked, turning back to her at the doorway. 

“Yeah,” she said. She paused and then smirked. “Take your clothes with you though. I can’t guarantee Kat won’t be hanging out to get a peek if you come back here to change.” 

“She the only Lewis lady wanting a peek?” he asked before disappearing into the bathroom and closing the door.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she muttered. 

“That would be why I asked!” he called through the door. 

“Eavesdropping is rude,” she called back and was rewarded with him chuckling. 

Shaking her head, she quickly headed downstairs, caring less she was still in her pajamas. She had no idea what they were doing today and until she knew, she refused to get dressed. 

Bounding down into the kitchen, she found Ellie half asleep over a bowl of cereal and Kat wolfing down what looked like four pancakes. Her father was sipping at his coffee and reading emails on his tablet. Her mother was at the stove, making a veritable mountain of more pancakes. Plus sausage and what appeared to be bacon. 

“You hate making bacon,” she couldn’t help but say. 

“Good morning to you too,” her mother retorted. “And I figured with that metabolism I heard about, Hottie McHottie would probably appreciate the meat.” 

“That’s not what he’s really craving this morning,” Kat snickered and Ellie and her mother both chuckled. Her father rolled his eyes. 

“I want to say something before Bucky comes down,” Darcy said, deciding to get this out of the way with all four present at once. “Bucky was a soldier and he saw action. He doesn’t do well with being startled…though he’s a lot better than he used to be.” 

Kat immediately looked contrite, catching on quick. “Did I startle him?” 

“Yes, so don’t come bursting in again, please,” she said. “He’s not severe but being woken like that doesn’t always end well.” 

“Has he ever hurt anyone?” Ellie asked and she knew her sister was actually asking if he’d accidentally hurt her. 

“No,” she assured her family. “He’s actually remarkably well adjusted when I startle him awake. It’s Steve and Natasha he’s given a black eye.” 

This made an impact on her parents but her sisters didn’t catch the significance. The older adults all nodded and her mother looked pensive. 

“I promise not to come in without an invite,” Kat vowed…then she smirked wickedly. “Though if he’s already awake, I do not promise not to come in and wake up old school style.” 

“I know people who would pay to see Darcy get woken like that,” Bucky said, coming down and joining them. His hair was still wet and his shirt clung to his torso but otherwise he looked remarkably awake and put together. She looked down at her own rumpled clothes, ran a hand through her hair, and winced. She looked back up just in time to see him brighten at her mother. “Is that bacon?” 

“I hope so, otherwise I need to have a very long talk with my butcher,” her mother replied. “Take as much as you want. Most of us have already eaten. What kind of syrup do you want?” 

“Blueberry?” he asked hopefully and Darcy could practically see her mother melt. 

“Katherine, get James the blueberry in the fridge behind you,” her mother ordered.

“You didn’t let me have the blueberry,” Kat complained as she did as told. 

“You’re not a guest…and if you eat any more blueberry flavored things, you’re going to turn _into_ a blueberry,” her mother retorted easily. 

“We’d have to start calling you Violet and that doesn’t fit with the rest of us,” Ellie agreed and Kat scrunched her face up at them as she handed over the coveted syrup. Darcy decided to wait and see what he thought of it before she told him it was her grandmother’s home-made syrup. 

The bug-eyed look and almost orgasmic moan as he took his first bite had them all laughing and made the wait totally worth it. 

“Now I see why you wanted this,” he told Kat. She inched her hand slowly towards the syrup container but he snatched it up, holding it to his chest. “Mine.” 

Kat pouted as the rest of them laughed. Content in the knowledge Bucky seemed comfortable with her family, she headed upstairs to take a shower and pull herself into some sort of order. 

 

She showered quickly and was just getting out when she realized she’d never asked where they were going. Peeking around the corner at the top of the stairs, she called down and asked. 

“Gator Farm and Sand Dunes!” her mother yelled back. “And don’t shout!” 

“You just shouted!” she shouted back. 

“I’m an adult, I’m allowed!” 

“So am I!” 

“No, you’re a very short, very old, girl-child,” her mother retorted. 

“All of you stop yelling,” he father called. “We leave in fifteen minutes.”

“I’m not even dressed!” she, Ellie, and Kat all shouted before she heard the scraping of chairs and the pounding of her sisters rushing up the stairs. 

“Welcome to the Lewis house-hold,” she could hear her father say. “Where the women outnumber the men four to one and none of them can be on time to save their lives.” 

“Six to one, Wes,” her mother corrected. “Winni and Mom will be joining us at the Dunes.” 

“Oh, sorry, six to one, my mistake,” her father replied sarcastically. “How is that any better?” 

“I never said it was better for you,” her mother said playfully. 

“Well, sir, I suppose I can help even the odds,” Bucky offered. Her father was quiet for a moment. 

“It’s a start.” 

“Dad likes him,” Ellie whispered behind Darcy and she turned to find Kat had beaten the older Lewis into the bathroom. “That’s a good sign.” She reached out and squeezed her hand. 

Her sister looked pleased for her and Darcy got a sinking feeling in her stomach. Figures she finds a guy all her family likes and all she’d get from him was friendship. 

 

~~*~~

The Gator Farm had started at a fish farm. When they needed to thin the ranks, so to speak, the owners had brought in some alligators. People heard about them and came to see them and next thing anyone knew, Colorado Gator Farm was on TV as a gator/reptile sanctuary. It and the Sand Dunes were two of the biggest tourist destinations in the Valley. 

The Lewis family had been going every year since she’d been five. For the most part, she knew everything to expect. However, having Bucky there was a whole new experience. He was like a little kid, watching everything and even humoring Ellie when she insisted he be the one to hold the baby gator. Darcy snapped a few pics and sent them off to the team. Almost immediately she got a slew of replies. 

_“Is that a Crocodile?”_

_“What the hell is that?”_

_“WHAT ARE THESE BEASTS?”_

_“Is that safe?”_

_“Where are you?”_

_“What is James holding?”_

_Why is Bucky holding an alligator?”_

She snapped a pic of the “Certificate of Bravery,” complete with the baby gator’s bite in the corner. She sent that off with a warning not to share the photo until she and Bucky got back to New York. No need for anyone to know Bucky was in Colorado.

She continued amusing herself by sending various photos to the team of their trip to the farm, even going so far as sending a candid of Kat and Bucky fighting over the gator food bucket with the caption _“my sister and Bucky seem to be getting along fine…lol.”_

Steve particularly liked that one, sending back a single text consisting entirely of smiling emoji’s. She showed that one to Bucky and he rolled his eyes, muttering “punk” under his breath before lunging at where Kat was leaning way over the fence. She was startled and Darcy, Ellie, and her parents got a good laugh at the way her sister blushed at the admonishment of not falling over and becoming gator food.

“Didn’t he have sisters?” Mom asked after her father and Bucky moved ahead to look at the gator from one of Adam Sandler’s movies. “Back before, I mean? I seem to recall reading that.” 

Darcy gaped at her mom. “I…yeah, he did, three of them,” she agreed just as quietly. She eyed Ellie and Kat but they were too far ahead to hear. “Becca is the only one still alive and she’s in her nineties.” 

She looked back at Bucky to find him staring at her, a sad, lopsided smile on his face. Her heart ached for him. He nodded at her to let her know he was okay and then turned to Ellie when she got his attention to point out a gator moving in the water. 

“I’m glad his friends sent him,” her mother whispered, patting her arm and moving to join her husband. Darcy smiled too, took a deep breath, and moved to stand by Bucky, threading her arm through his. 

“Enjoying yourself?” 

“Yes,” he replied. Then he added, “They remind me of Rebecca, Rachel, and Joyce.” 

“…Is that good?”

“…Yeah, it is,” he agreed after a moment, smiling. He suddenly bent down to kiss her forehead. “Thank you for not kicking me off the plane.” 

“As if, your ass would probably bruise my toes!” she scoffed. 

“I could kiss them better,” he offered lowly. She blushed and he laughed and just like that, the heavy atmosphere disappeared. 

They finished the Gator Farm shortly after that and headed towards the Sand Dunes. Grams and Aunt Winnie met them there with a picnic lunch and all their summer dunes gear. 

“It’s sand,” Bucky said lowly as he eyed the giant hills skeptically. Despite that, she couldn’t help noticing he also kept flickering his gaze to the sand sleds in the back of her aunt’s truck. She smirked and took a large bite of her sub to hide it. 

“Yeah, and then there’s the creek,” Ellie told him. “Medano. “It’s actually running today, which is a good sign.” 

“We have kites too,” Kat added. The wind, which could be downright terrifying some days, was currently perfect for flying them. 

“Including a new one your mother had me pick up this morning,” Aunt Winni pipped in. She smiled wickedly at the duo as her mother and grandmother cackled behind them. “I think you two will get a kick out of it.” 

The kite was one of those new 3-D one’s of Steve. Specifically, it was Steve as Cap, looking fierce and commanding. Bucky and Darcy stared at it a moment before looking at each other. They burst out laughing. 

The laughter only got worse when they actually got out near the creek to fly them and Darcy realized just where the line was connected. At the crotch, the line split into four strands attached around it to allow the air inside and inflate the kite. Unfortunately, due to the way it all looked…Unable to help herself, she snapped a picture and sent it to Steve. 

_“Whoever you lay is either gonna be really happy or really sore ;p”_

Steve didn’t reply but she did get one from Stark, demanding to know what she’d said to make him turn that dark of a red. 

It was only after she and Bucky managed to stop laughing long enough to successfully get inappropriate-kite!Steve in the air that Darcy realized her aunt and grandmother must have known who Bucky really was. She looked over at the older woman and caught her eye. Her grandmother winked at her and went back to berating her son on how best to launch the kite he was failing to get up. Aunt Winni winked at her too before focusing back on her older niece and the knots they were trying to untangle. 

They flew the kites until the wind grew too wild to control them and her father insisted they bring them back down so they didn’t rip.

“You ready to go up?” Kat asked Bucky, sidling up to his side. He looked down at her, amused, and nodded. She cheered. “Sweet! I call not it on dragging the sleds!” 

“Not it!” Darcy and Ellie shouted at the same time. They turned to the rest of the group. Dad and Mom held up their hands 

“You guys go without us this time,” her mom said. She stretched her arms up high in the air from her seat. “I just want to bask in the sun.” 

“I swear she turns more lizard-like every year,” her father informed Darcy with a wicked grin. Her mother gasped, mock scandalized, and the three sisters turned to their aunt and Grams as they began squabbling. 

“I am too old to be grudging up those dunes,” her grandmother said with a chuckle. “Unless Hottie here wants to carry me?”

“I—” Bucky looked like he was about to agree to do it and Darcy quickly cut him off. 

“Sorry Grams, he’s taking the sleds,” she said and her grandmother chuckled but settled back in her little chair. Aunt Winni gave her a highly disbelieving look. 

“When have I ever gone up with you?” she asked and Darcy nodded, accepting this. “I will remain down here where I won’t burn my toes or get sand in every crevice of my body.” 

As the four headed up the dunes, Bucky obligingly dragging the sleds behind by his metal arm, Kat suddenly began humming. Bucky looked confused but Ellie and Darcy exchanged looks and then joined in. 

“We’re going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship!” Kat sang out. “Zooming through the sky!” 

“Little Einsteins!” Ellie and Darcy shouted at the top of their lungs. “Climb aboard, get ready to explore, There’s so much to find, Little Einsteins!”

As they continued, about a dozen middle school students behind them joined in, so that the dunes echoed with the song. Glancing back, she could just make out her parents hunched over in what she hoped was laughter. Turning back to Bucky, she found him smiling and shaking his head. She grinned at him as the song started over again. 

They continued singing, the middle school kids following along like puppies, until they reached the top of one of the first dunes. They didn’t go to the very top dune, as they could take forever, but the one they chose was pretty steep and would make for a great ride down nevertheless.

The middle school kids continued on, still singing as they disappeared behind the sand. Darcy chuckled and looked at Kat. “Think they’ll mention that at school on Monday?” 

“No doubt,” she agreed. She smirked. “Tate is going to give them all detention if they do it going out to recess…again. They’re driving her batty with it.”

“Why do I get the feeling this song is not new to the school?” Bucky asked, amused, and Kat beamed at him. 

“It’s all part of my plan,” she told him and Bucky leaned back slightly from the evil tone. 

“She does that way too well,” he informed her and Darcy and Ellie cracked up. 

Once they calmed down, the two older sisters showed Bucky the sleds and they got ready. Ellie counted down and on three, Darcy and Bucky dived down the Dunes, laughing uproariously as they sped through the air. Other people watched, some in amusement, others in jealousy. Darcy understood both, since it was notoriously difficult to go down as fast as they were. What these kids didn’t know was her father had done something to the sleds years ago that made going down the Dunes so much better. 

As they slid to a stop, Bucky looked over at Darcy, hair whipped around his head in disarray and a bright grin on his face as he leapt to his feet, sled strap already in hand. “Let’s do it again!” 

Darcy laughed and scrambled after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may end up being longer than 8 chapters…I’m not sure yet but I've changed it to 9 just in case. 
> 
> The tourist locations are completely legit…and totally worth a visit. 
> 
> The song…well, that was inspired by my students deciding to sing it almost non-stop on the way to the amusement park in Denver last Friday and to the Zoo in Colorado Springs today.
> 
> Finally, the wonderful artwork at the top of this chapter was a gift from UsedKarma over on tumblr. Yay!


	6. The Mixer, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky and Darcy get ready for the Mixer...and some surprises spring up.

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

Bucky and Darcy continued all the touristy stuff she and her family could think of. They went hiking, fishing, horseback riding, and up to Creede to attend the theatre there. By the time the following Friday came back around, they were both tired but relaxed and happy. This had been a much needed break from “all danger, all the time” for them. Even Steve, when he called to check in with Darcy on Thursday, told her Bucky’s texts had been a lot more upbeat than usual. Like the brunette, he thanked Darcy for not kicking the Winter Soldier off the plane. 

But Friday was the whole reason Darcy was home and so it was with a apprehensive heart that she and Bucky started getting ready on that evening. They’d hung around the house earlier, Darcy not wanting to worry about anything that morning, and then they’d gone upstairs around six. The Mixer was supposed to start at 8 so that gave them both about two hours to get dressed.

She was keeping her hair down and mostly un-styled, like Natasha had ordered. The dress itself was snug (but not tight) and was a strapless dress covered in black lace. The lace went above the breasts to just about her collarbone, and down her arms. The skirt hit just above her knees and in the words of Wanda, with the killer heels her legs looked like they went on for miles. 

Her makeup was simple, with smokey eyeshadow and liner. The only bright thing in her entire ensemble were the red star choker she was wearing (which made a lot more sense now that she knew why Natasha had insisted on it) and her lips, which was the new Ironman Red Pepper had gotten her an advance batch of. 

Putting her simple silver studs in her ears, she happened to glance at the mirror as Bucky came out of the bathroom and nearly dropped her earring. 

Bucky must have been dressed by Natasha too because he was dressed entirely in black, from a black button down and tie to a black jacket and pants. Even his shoes, which she could see near the couch he’d been storying his duffel on, was shiny black. 

His hair, which he’d kept shaggy despite how much it annoyed him at times, was pulled back in a messy man-bun. He hadn't’ shaved closely either. All in all, she really _really_ approved. She whistled low and he rolled his eyes, not looking her way as he fumbled with his shoes. 

“You clean up nice, Barnes,” she told him, slipping her earring in and securing it. She grabbed her black clutch as he tied off his shoes. As she stood, he finally looked over and froze. He stared for a good five minutes before she finally fidgeted a bit and twirled. “Like what you see?” 

“You have no idea, Doll,” he replied, voice low as he straightened. She swallowed as she just barely glimpsed the hungry look he’d hidden. 

Luckily for her sanity, a knock sounded then and she turned to the door when Kat poked her head in. After their quick and simple talk, her sister had taken her orders not to startle Bucky way more seriously than she’d thought she would. She always made certain to make sounds as she approached and she never went into Darcy’s room without knocking first. Darcy made a mental note to send her something from her closet in New York when they got back. Kat had always enjoyed stealing her clothes. 

The younger girl whistled low too, taking her in. “Wow, Darce, you look amazing,” she breathed out. “So much better than your slutty prom dress! Much classier.” 

“A classy man deserves a classy girl,” she quipped and motioned to Bucky. Her sister’s jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out when she saw him. Darcy snickered. Bucky gave Kat a small smile, fidgeting with his cuffs a minute. Then he stopped, a furrow appearing on his face. He glanced between the two of them. 

“Slutty prom dress?” 

Darcy sighed as her sister’s eyes lit up and she booked it down the stairs, shouting she’d be right back. One thing that had not changed? Her sister’s insistent need to embarrass Darcy every which way to Sunday. She turned to the watching Bucky. “I was young, I was stupid, and I was trying to piss off all my classmates who insisted I come cause it was our last school dance,” she told him.

“Slutty prom dress?” he repeated with a raised eyebrow and quirked lips.

“It fit the school dress code!” she defended herself then winced. “Mostly.”

In truth, her dress had more closely resembled bright red bandages than it did an actual dress but her mother hadn’t said anything when they’d bought it. In fact, she’d outright smirked when Darcy had told her the reason for choosing such a risque gown. 

Her father hadn’t liked it nearly as much.

Kat came pounding back up with Darcy’s prom scrap book in hand. A bunch of the staff always made senior scrapebooks for the students to add to the yearbooks, which didn’t cover Prom or Graduation. Not wanting to see his reaction to her 18-year-old idiocy, she left Kat flipping through the book with Bucky looking down at it with interest. 

A low whistle met her when she got into the kitchen. She smiled brightly at her grandmother, who gave her an approving look. Ellie, her mother, father, and aunt were all waiting just like they’d been ten years ago when she’d come down for senior prom. 

“Much better than the slutty dress,” Ellie said and Darcy rolled her eyes. 

“You all thought I’d do it again, didn’t you?” she asked and all of them nodded brightly, not even trying to appear guilty or innocent. Her dad walked over with a small smile. 

“Beautiful,” he said quietly and bent down to kiss her forehead. Then his eyebrow raised as his eyes crinkled in a smirk. “But the skirt is too short.” 

Darcy rolled her eyes again.

“And what about Hottie McHottie?” Mom asked, coming over to fuss slightly with her hair. 

“Living up to his nickname,” she quipped and her mom smiled. 

“I cannot wait to see him,” Grams and Aunt Winni both said. Her Grams even went so far as to run her hands together excitedly. 

“Handsome men are always a good visual. Why, I remember the handsomest man I’ve ever met,” Grams continued. “Tall, built, blonde, with gorgeous blue eyes…” 

Her father’s brow furrowed. “Dad was brunette with brown eyes,” he said slowly. 

“Yes, he was,” Grams agreed absently. Darcy suddenly had a sneaking suspicion just who her grandmother was remembering. 

“Grams…” she said slowly and the older woman looked over at her brightly. 

“Yes, my devil?” 

“Are you talking about who I think you’re talking about?”

She winked in reply and Aunt Winni choked. Mom cracked up and when Darcy looked over, she could see why: Dad looked like he’d just ate a lemon. 

“Who are you talking about?” Ellie asked, confused. 

“Steve Rogers,” Dad answered with a disgruntled look. 

“Captain America,” Aunt Winni supplied helpfully and with a laughing grin. 

“When did you even meet him?!” Darcy and Ellie both demanded. 

“1941, Denver, at the USO show,” she replied promptly. “I doubt he remembers me… Oh, that was one man who could--”

“Mother,” Dad interrupted her. “I don’t need to hear about your fantasies about him…again.” 

“Again?!” Darcy and Ellie exclaimed with a laugh. Dad made a face as her mother’s laughter intensified. 

“She hasn’t been shutting up about the 40’s since you came home,” Aunt Winni told her with a significant look. “You’ve just been too busy with Hottie McHottie to notice.” 

Darcy giggled. 

“…seriously, what was so funny?” Kat was demanding when she and Bucky came downstairs. Bucky was laughing, shaking his head, and Darcy caught his eye. He winked and she snickered; of course he’d heard that entire conversation. 

“We’ll tell you when you’re older,” she told Kat and the girl stuck her tongue out at her.

It occurred to Darcy suddenly that the kitchen was suspiciously silent. She turned to look at her family and even her father was staring at Bucky. No, she realized, at her _and_ Bucky. 

“Well,” Grams finally said. “Looks like Darcy’s inherited my ability to attract good looking men.”

“You are talking about Dad now, right?” Dad asked hopefully, still not taking his eyes off the two of them. 

“Yes, Weston, I’m talking about your father…as well as Steve,” Grams added wickedly. 

Then Aunt Winni let out a low whistle. “You clean up _good_ , James!” 

“Well, he cleans up well,” Ellie muttered, still staring herself.

Bucky’s cheeks were pink when she turned to look up at him. His gaze was every where except the five leering woman and one stunned man. Finally, he looked back down at her. His expression relaxed and he gave her a small smile. 

*click*

She and Bucky both blinked, startled, and turned to find Kat had her phone out. “What?” she asked innocently. 

“I’m going to get the camera,” her father said then. He gave them a firm look. “Don’t. Move.” 

And just like that her entire family was in motion, the women all pulling out cell phones to snap pictures like she was going to prom. Her dad was mumbling as he came back from his office, the good family camera in hand.

“Put your arm around her waist,” Kat ordered in a no-nonsense tone. Bucky responded without hesitation and she leaned slightly into him. 

“You know,” she said through a resigned smile. “You didn’t make this much of a fuss when I went to Prom.” 

“You didn’t have a date and that dress barely counted as a dress,” her mother responded. 

“Look at it as making up for lost chances,” Aunt Winni advised, frowning at her phone. “James, you need to talk to your PR person. This look works for you.” 

“PR person?” Ellie asked, brow furrowing as she looked over at their aunt. Aunt Winni just smirked. 

“A joke, darling, now take more photos before you sister suddenly recalls she hates pictures of herself.” 

Ellie did as she was told but Darcy could see her gears working. She bit off a sigh—somehow, by the end of their visit, Kat would be the only one not in the know. Ellie was simply too smart for her own good. 

It took a ridiculously long time for photos, if only because Darcy remembered her jacket and then they had to have photos by the door. She cut them off when it looked like they might try to pose photos by the car but she was fairly certain her mother and aunt took photos of that anyway. 

“Are you ready for this?” Bucky asked as they headed towards the restaurant and bar the mixer was being held in. She was directing him, as she couldn’t drive in heels. 

“You know, I think I am,” she told him thoughtfully. “I don’t need their validation to know I’m awesome but it’ll be nice to see the stunned looks I know are bound to come out tonight…if only because I have it on good authority none of them think I’m actually going to show.” 

Despite the small town, they hadn’t really run into any of the residents outside of quick hi/bye scenarios. Oh, they all knew she was back but according to Mark, the opinion of the rest of their graduating class seemed to be that she would be a no-show and make some excuse on Facebook as to why she’d missed the weekend. Surprisingly, not even Mark had heard about Bucky, which Darcy knew meant her family had kept quiet and not told anyone. Since they all knew her opinion on her classmates, she suspected this had been done for maximum shock value for when she appeared at the mixer with him in tow. 

Yeah, she was surprisingly looking forward to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am officially on summer vacation! I have an entire month to just laze about until I have to start thinking about next school year and getting my classroom back in order (FYI, it looked so naked when I locked it up this morning!). 
> 
> Also, I have internet again! WOOHOO!


	7. The Mixer, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky attend the mixer to, well, mixed results....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On top of it being summer vacation, I found out after I posted the last chapter that I passed my teaching program! I am able to be a fully licensed teacher and am finished with my training program! 
> 
> I am so stoked right now I just spent four hours writing and replying to comments! Thank everyone for them, by the way. I'm thrilled you're enjoying this as much as you are!
> 
> Also, yes, some of the names in this are significant. *whistles innocently*

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

As they pulled into the parking lot, she could see through the glass her old classmates inside. Others, like her, were just arriving. She could see Mark standing by the door, a shaggy blond man at his side, as they chatted. She didn’t recognize the new guy and she grinned brightly as she realized who he had to be.

“What’s that grin for?” Bucky asked as he parked. 

“Mark brought his fiancee,” she told him with a smirk. “Roger.” 

Bucky blinked at her a moment and then smirked back. “Did they know he was gay in high school?” he asked knowingly. 

“Nope,” she chirped. “This ought to be fun.” 

They got out of the car. Bucky double checked they locked it before he came around to offer her his arm. 

“Well, thank you kind sir,” she chirped cheekily and he laughed, bending down to kiss her forehead again. 

“You’re welcome, Doll,” he told her. “Shall we?” 

“We shall,” she agreed just as she heard Mark give out a whoop of joy and come bounding towards her. 

“DARCY!” he shouted and out of the corner of her eye she could just make out Anna staring at her in absolute shock. 

“MARK!” she shouted back, gently untangling herself from Bucky just in time for Mark to pick her up and twirl her around in the air. Her shoe went flying and as Mark put her down, she stepped on his foot so she wouldn’t hurt her soles on the gravel. She put her arms on either of his and looked up into his face and said in her best Edna Mode impression, “‘My god, you’ve gotten fat.’” 

He burst out laughing and twirled her around again just as Bucky came back with her shoe. 

“You seemed to have lost this, Cinderella,” he teased gently, handing it back to her. 

“That would make you Prince Charming,” she informed him as she balanced on one heel to slip the other one on. Bucky held onto her arm to help. 

“He certainly looks the part,” Mark and the other man who’d joined them chimed. Darcy burst out laughing at the way Bucky blushed. 

“James, this is my best friend from high school, Mark Rapp,” she calmed enough to introduce them. “Mark, James.” 

“And this is Roger Pascal, my fiancee,” he introduced. “This was my other half in high school, Darcy Lewis.”

“We did tend to enable each other, didn’t we?” she mused. Mark laughed. 

“Damn right we did,” he agreed. He turned to Bucky. “So you managed to do the impossible huh?” 

“The impossible?” Bucky asked, eyebrow raised. 

“Wrangle the Wild Lewis,” he responded. “She dated exactly once in all of high school and ended up sending him to the ER by the end of the date.” 

“That’s what happens when you try to cope a feel and then get butt-hurt when I slap you for it,” Darcy grumbled. Bucky tensed. 

“Is he going to be here?” 

“Down boy,” she ordered with a slight laugh. “There will be no killing of Miguel.” 

“What about maiming?” he asked and though both Mark and Roger laughed, Darcy could hear the thread of seriousness in his voice. 

“No.” 

“Spoilsport.” 

“I like this one, Darce,” Mark said, clapping Bucky on the shoulder. “How long you two been together?” 

“Three months,” they chorused.

“And how’d you meet?” Roger asked curiously. He motioned between him and Mark. “We were roommates.”

Darcy raised an eyebrow at Mark, who turned a deep red.

“So I did things slightly off-kilter, sue me,” he muttered. And in a blatant attempt to get the attention off of him, he added, “Seriously though, how’d you meet?” 

“My partner got shanghaied by her in the middle of the cafeteria at work,” Bucky said before she could. He grinned. “He didn’t know what hit him, the poor guy. When he mentioned her to me, his description was ‘you, but with boobs.’”

Darcy blinked at him. “He did not!” 

“Oh yes he did,” he agreed with a wicked smirk. “Clint was there too and about suffocated himself because he was laughing so hard.” 

“So you work together?” Mark asked. His eyes twinkled as he wagged a finger in her face. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to mix business with pleasure?” 

“Good girl,” Roger added with a wink. Darcy laughed, really liking this guy. Bucky chuckled too. 

“Steve and me are security at the Tower,” he told them. “She’s office administration. Not a whole lot of overlap there…unless her scientists decide to blow something up again and we get called.”

Mark and Roger both looked intrigued about this but just then someone honked and the foursome realized they were still standing in the middle of the parking lot. Laughing, they headed inside. 

“Oh. My. God!” someone screeched and Darcy winced, recognizing that voice anywhere. She’d had to listen to it every year at recitals because no one had ever thought to tell Maddie Carmichael she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. “Darcy Lewis, back from the great beyond!” 

Maddie’s voice, being so loud and recognizable, caught the attention of the entire room. As Mark and her looked around, recognizing about half the people, they stared back. Many were stunned, men and women alike, and others looked amused. To her surprise, Selena was one of the latter. She and Selena had been like cats and dogs in high school; the queen bee at school, she’d been one of the ringleaders in tormenting Darcy. Darcy, of course, had never backed down, hence the two of them holding the record for most fights. 

“And Mark!” Maddie continued, reveling in the attention she was garnering by being the first one to see them. She smiled sickly sweet. “How about that, together as always.” 

There was no mistaking the meaning and she and Mark looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Most of the school had always thought they were together. They’d never spoken of it but Darcy had always known his orientation so she’d never felt the need to correct anyone about it. Not a full on beard, but enough to keep him safe at the time. 

Apparently they were past that need to hide though. “Everyone, this is Roger,” Mark said, pulling the aforementioned man to the forefront. He grinned brightly at them, a thread of defiance in his voice. “My fiancee.”

There was stunned silence for all of a minute before a triumphant voice cried out, “I KNEW IT! You owe me twenty bucks, Montoya!” 

The speaker was Carmen, Selena’s twin sister, who was holding her hand out to her husband, David. Carmen had gotten pregnant senior year and she and David had the whole shotgun wedding deal because god forbid their catholic parents have a bastard grandchild. She was honestly surprised they were still together but as David obligingly pulled out his wallet to hand over the money, Darcy found herself surprisingly happy it was so. Carmen had always been nicer to her than her sister.

“And who is this?” Maddie asked, narrowing her eyes at where Darcy was standing next to Bucky. 

“This is James,” Darcy introduced him, threading her left hand through his right. She grinned cheekily. “My boo.” 

“Hmmm, you always did have fairly discerning taste,” Selena mused, glancing over at the bar. “Nice to see that continued when you got out of this hell-hole.” 

Miguel, who was at the bar, didn’t seem to realize the barb aimed at him. She blinked at the other woman, who gave her a wry smile in return. 

Some of the people there turned their backs on them, moving away to talk in quiet groups. It was obvious what the topic was, as they kept glancing at Mark and Roger in disgust every so often. Darcy rolled her eyes, not surprised in the least at this reaction. 

“Come on, let’s find a table,” she urged and though Darcy herself was heading towards one in the back, Bucky redirected her towards one more in the center of the place. Mark and Roger followed their lead, still holding hands tightly, but Mark was sufficiently distracted when she took off her jacket to show off the dress underneath. 

“Wow girl, you definitely moved up in the world,” he whistled. “How much did that cost?” 

“A friend bought it for me so I didn’t ask,” she answered. “Pretty sure I could have bought a small country though.”

“Natasha?” Bucky asked, amused.

“How’d you guess?” she inquired. 

“She was very specific in what I should bring with me,” he answered. He frowned. “Steve too, now that I think about it.” 

Darcy frowned herself but was distracted by the arrival of Brenda. Brenda had been one of the quieter and sweeter girls in the school so they’d never really had any problems. 

“Hi Darcy,” she greeted her with a quick smile. 

“Brenda, good to see you,” she replied in kind. “How have you been? I don’t think we’re friends on Facebook.” 

“I don’t think so, no,” she agreed. “I’ve been good. Living in New Mexico, working as a school nurse.” 

“Good for you,” Darcy told her. “You went to Albuquerque, right?” 

“UNM, yeah,” she agreed. “Took me five years but I did it.” 

“Why five?” Roger asked curiously. Mark was suspiciously silent; Brenda had had the biggest crush on him and he’d turned her down the one and only time she’d tried asking him to go out. 

“I double majored in nursing and education,” she answered. “It was hard but I really wanted to work with kids at a school.” 

“Good for you,” Darcy repeated. 

“According to the posters, you’re at Stark Tower, right?” Brenda said, cocking her head as she fidgeted from side to side. “What’s that like?” 

“Posters?” she asked instead of answering. “What posters?”

“Maddie made them,” she said, jerking her head towards the corner of the bar. “It has all the stuff we put on the questionnaire’s she sent out.” 

Darcy had never heard about this questionnaire. Her eyes narrowed and she headed over in the direction Brenda had pointed. As she’d said, there were small posters, all of them color printed on 8x11 colored card-stock, attached to the wall. Each student seemed to have one and it didn’t surprise her to find the queen bees and the jokes were centerpiece with everyone else surrounding them. Darcy and Mark’s were side by side, opposite of Brenda’s. Mark’s seemed mostly empty and he muttered that he’d not returned the questionnaire when Roger asked him. 

She focused on hers. “THEN” was splashed across the top in comic-sans font, with her senior photo underneath it. Under that was her high school basics, such as the clubs she’d been in and her ranking in the school at graduation (3rd out of sixteen, thank you very much!). The final stat was her senior quote: 

_“Hakuna Matata, bitches!”_

Under all of that was another title, this one saying “NOW.” It had two pictures of herself; the first was her standing next to the Thames, across from Big Ben and the Parliament building. Her arms were thrown open wide and she’d been grinning like a loon at Jane, who’d been laughing so hard she’d barely been able to take the picture. It had been her profile pic on Facebook for ages, just because she loved it so much. The other was a pic of her and Jane in New Mexico during the whole Thor thing. It was technically a surveillance photo from SHIELD but Clint had thought she’d like it. She had, and prior to England, it had been her profile pic before she’d changed it. 

Like with the THEN stats, this one had her NOW stats. 

**Married Status:** Dating.  
 **Children:** Not yet.  
 **Degree:** BA Political Science, Culver University (2012); BS Astrophysics, Culver University (2014); MA Business Management, Culver University (Pending)  
 **Location:** New York City, New York  
 **Occupation:** Senior Assistant to Dr. Jane Foster, PhD., Stark Tower  
 **Most Memorable Experience Since HS Graduation:** Being in England during the attack by the Dark Elves that the Avenger Thor averted. New Mexico.

“You have a astrophysics degree? You’re getting a _business_ degree?” Mark asked, astonished. 

“You were in England when that attack happened?” Roger asked just as shocked. 

“Long story,” she told Mark. “And yes, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the news made it out to be.” Mentally, she told herself it was a hell of a lot more scary. To Bucky she added, “Mom filled out my questionnaire, she had to have. Though I wonder how she remembered me telling her New Mexico was awesome.” 

“Is it really that bad?” Bucky asked quietly. “At least you have a poster. And a pic of you at work.” 

“I suppose,” she said, biting her lip. 

“So, I’m curious,” Maddie said, joining them then. “Why New Mexico?” 

“What?” 

“Why New Mexico?” she repeated, motioning. “I put it on cause that’s what was on the questionnaire but…I don’t get it.” 

She thought for a moment. “Let’s just say it was a memorable summer,” she finally said with a slight smile. Then, with a perky grin, she added, “I tased someone!” 

“And hit him with a van,” Bucky added dryly. 

“That was technically Jane.” 

“You were in the drivers seat.” 

“And she pulled the steering wheel!” 

Mark burst out laughing. “It does not surprise me in the least you tased someone,” he chuckled at the same time Roger asked who Jane was. 

“My boss/best friend,” she answered, pointing to the occupation stat. “Technically she’s also sorta my boss but most of the time I’m the one bossing her around so…” 

“Darcy makes certain Dr. Foster and a few others eat, sleep, and does something other than science,” Bucky added as they headed back to the table. “Her official title is Life Assistant.” 

“Life Assistant? Sheah, right. More like she probably slept her way into being someone’s pet. Stark likes big tits, right?” 

The voice was rougher than she remembered, probably from the alcohol, but the tone…oh yeah, she sighed, turning to the man from the bar who’d apparently already had several drinks. “While Stark has commented on my assets once or twice, he’s so firmly in love with Potts is sickening. Also, ew, breath mint, please? Or did you forget basic hygiene along with how to keep a job?” 

Miguel narrowed his eyes at her. “Looks like you’re still a bitch,” he slurred. “Too high and mighty for us lowly hispanics?” 

“I would watch what you say to Darcy,” Bucky warned in a low tone as Darcy’s eyes widened. His tone brooked no argument as he added, “And apologize. Now.”

“Bucky, ignore him,” she advised, tugging on his arm. “He’s probably still bitter about Homecoming.” 

In high school Miguel had been lean, thin, and ridiculously athletic. Since then, however, it didn’t look like the years had been as kind. He’d put on weight, he had the complexion of someone too often in the spirits, and he smelled strongly of marijuana. 

She made a disgusted noise and turned back to Mark only to see his eyes widen and his mouth drop open in a silent warning. She turned to find Bucky holding Miguel’s wrist tightly with his right arm. Miguel’s eyes were bulging as he glared angrily at the man who’d stopped him from hitting her. 

“You ever try and touch my girl again, I will teach you every single thing I have ever learned since joining the army,” he warned in a silent, deadly voice. She knew he wasn’t just talking about the US army training he’d received.

Then, because the angle was just right and the only two who could see were her and Miguel, Bucky let the Winter Soldier forward. It wasn’t a lot, but even as inebriated as he was, Miguel was smart enough to recognize a very real threat when faced with one. 

“Alright, you two, break it up,” another voice said and Darcy looked over to see Miguel’s older cousin, Ben, coming over. He’d graduated a few years ahead of them and now owned the restaurant. “Miguel, I told you you could come if you didn’t cause any problems.” 

“I didn’t!” he argued immediately. “This puto was—”

“You don’t hit a lady, pinche idiota!” Ben snapped. “And Darcy always had more class than half the puta’s in this town!”

Then he went off on his younger cousin in Spanish. Darcy only caught one or two words in every ten but from that and the way Bucky’s lips were quirking, it clearly wasn’t anything good. She wrapped an arm around the soldier’s middle as Miguel was dragged out of the bar by his cousin. Everyone was silent for a moment before Selena snorted. 

“And here I thought we’d all grown up,” she drawled. She glanced at Darcy, Mark, Brenda, and Carmen before smiling. “Well, some of us have.” She looked at the rest, including the assholes who kept glaring at Mark and Roger. “Others, not so much.” 

“What happened to you, Selena?” Darcy blurted out, astonished.

“I went to Denver and got my head kicked on straight,” she said with a wry smile. “You were right—it wasn’t a pleasant experience.” 

Mark snorted and then half the room started laughing. Those not were spouses and significant others who weren’t there senior year when Darcy and Selena had had their final fight—and Darcy had flounced away after informing Selena she would one day get her ass kicked and find it wasn’t a pleasant thing to discover you weren’t as hot shit as you thought you were.

Selena, Carmen, David, and Brenda dragged a nearby table over and the rest of the evening passed in companionable laughter, reminiscing about high school, and wondering just what the hell Maddie had planned for the next day’s activities.


	8. Saturday Morning, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky attend the Saturday Morning activities...and get a few surprises.

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

When Darcy and Bucky arrived at the school the next morning at 9, they seemed to be one of about six that didn’t seem to have a hangover of some sort. 

“And this is why I didn’t have more than one drink,” she informed the soldier as she watched Selena, Mark, and Carmen all wince at the sun beating down at them as they got out of their vehicles. She was dressed in short shorts, a white tank top, and the bright red shirt they’d sent out. Only she’d cut hers up yesterday when the news said it would be sunny all morning. Off went the sleeves and the bottom, which was cut into strips. Parts of both sides also got cut into strips so she could tie them together. The front still showed the snarling wolf (their school mascot) and the bright white words “Class of 2006” underneath it. On the back was her last name. 

Bucky was in jeans (he’d flatly refused shorts) and the other, unmolested, shirt (also with her last name on it). When he’d come down, she’d sent a prayer of thanks to whoever had chosen the size for her extra shirt, because damn if the snug look didn’t do good things for him. Then she’d made a crack of him emulating Steve and he’d gently pushed her off the kitchen chair as she laughed. 

Her parents had joined them for breakfast but Ellie had still been asleep and Kat had already been on her way to the high school. That was when she remembered that the incoming seniors always helped out with that years reunion, if they had one. Ellie had helped when she’d been a senior but the class of 1995 hadn’t come back so Darcy herself had gotten out of it. 

Just as they’d gotten into the car, she’d received a text from her sister. 

**“Maddie has a theme for today. <3 *cackles*”**

Standing on the football field, waiting in line to check in, she knew exactly what the theme was. 

“Am I really seeing this?” she asked lowly as she and Bucky stared. He nodded back, eyes flashing in laughter. 

“Wha…why are the Avengers all staring back at me?” Mark asked, squinting at the poster above the sign-in table. 

“Wasn’t our senior Homecoming theme superheroes?” Brenda asked from behind her, frowning. She was with her husband and both looked really tired.

Darcy’s eyes widened. “It was!” she exclaimed. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I forgot that!” 

Bucky chuckled. “Looks like even here you can’t get away from Stark,” he joked, motioning to the cutouts of the team. The only one missing was Bucky himself, as he wasn’t an actively known member yet. She caught sight of her sister with a digital camera near the cutouts, taking pictures of the kids and adults with them. A couple tables nearby her showed her sister’s best friend Katie behind a computer set-up and printer. Every so often her sister exchanged her storage disk with the one Katie was handing her. 

“Printouts of the photo’s,” she murmured, craning slightly to see them being placed on the second table. 

“They say ‘Return of the Wolves, Class of 2006,’ and then today’s date,” Bucky murmured, his vision a hell of a lot better than hers. “Who are you taking a picture with?” 

“The entire team, duh,” she answered. Then she paused, seeing Diego taking a pic with his phone. “And possibly one on one’s to send off.” 

Bucky chuckled. “Cap first,” he advised and she shook her head. “Not Cap?” 

“Thor,” she told him firmly. “Then Hawkeye.”

He nodded after a minute as he seemed to realize she was going to go in the order she’d met them. 

“Hi, Darcy,” Alex, another of her sister’s classmates, greeted her as she and Bucky finally stepped up. His eyes went wide when he saw Bucky. “Wow, Kat was not kidding.” 

“About what?” she asked with a resigned sigh. 

“She kept telling Katie how hot your boyfriend was,” he answered matter-of-fact. Darcy groaned. 

“Do I want to know what else she told you?” 

“Just that you guys seemed like the real deal,” he assured her. He handed her a sign in sheet and a folder full of papers. “Here, sign this and then take one of the score sheets.” 

“Score sheets?” she asked absently as she scribbled her and Bucky’s names down. 

“Miss Maddie will explain when everyone’s signed in,” he told her then paused. “Basically, though, she decided to make it a competition.” 

“Of course she did,” Darcy sighed. She winced. “Just how badly do you think this is gonna go?” 

“I actually don’t think it’ll be that bad,” he told her thoughtfully. His brow furrowed. “Kat couldn’t stop laughing when Miss Maddie was explaining each station though.” 

Darcy looked over at her sister. Kat caught her eye and winked before turning back to Carmen and David, who were standing with the Cap cutout. Carmen was staring adoringly up at him, one hand on his cardboard chest. David was standing next to her, a scowl on his face as he crossed his arms. After the picture was taken, both burst out laughing. Darcy chuckled. 

By 9:30 all sixteen of them were there. Miguel looked even worse than last night but he was present and accounted for, along with a miserable woman Darcy recognized from the year behind them. Miguel’s wife, if she remembered correctly. Maria looked like she’d really rather be anywhere but where she currently was. 

Darcy had indeed taken her official picture with the entire group and then taken selfie’s with each of the individual cutouts. Bucky had agreed to one with Cap and one with Natasha but refused all the rest. She posted all of her pictures together on her personal instagram with the caption **“Look who I ran into at my HS reunion! Cardboard Avengers!”**

Almost immediately it had been liked by Tony. She decided he must have had FRIDAY keeping an eye on her social media. She kept that in mind for the rest of the morning. 

“Alright everyone, gather round!” Maddie shouted and everyone turned as one. It was really hard to ignore that woman’s voice; Darcy was fairly certain it had gotten even more shrill since high school. “Great, first off, thank you everyone for coming!” 

She waited as they all politely clapped. “Now, the way this morning is going to work is similar to our old Field Day only with a twist! Every station follows the Avengers theme—which is a modern take on our senior homecoming theme—and each is for a different Avenger!” 

Darcy’s jaw dropped as the woman outlined how the competition would go. They’d be put into teams of six classmates and their spouses and partners, for a total of 12 in each team. At each station, they’d get a stamp of whichever Avenger the station was based on and then as a group they’d compete. Each set of partners only had to have one of them do the station though, so Darcy could do Thor’s and Bucky wouldn’t. Their scores would all be tallied into a group score. After they’d gone through all of the stations, they’d all be compared and a team would be declared the winner.

“And the prizes will include a $100 visa gift card for each classmate on the team and their partner—so six in total—as well as one of six signed poster’s I personally contacted Pepper Potts for!” 

Darcy straightened at that, watching as one of the high school kids unrolled the poster to reveal one of the new team photo’s with all twelve men and women. It was indeed signed by all the team; she recognized their various handwritings near their images. As her classmates murmured, impressed, Darcy herself pulled out her phone and texted Pepper. 

**“Did you send 6 posters for a high school reunion prize????”**

Her phone chimed a moment later with the strawberry blonde’s reply: 

**“…was that your school?”**

Darcy didn’t believe the innocent question for a moment. Too much had already been manipulated (such as Bucky’s outfits fitting hers and him somehow having her extra Saturday shirt). She decided not to reply and stuffed her phone back in her shorts just as Maddie told them to form their groups. 

Mark and Roger immediately sidled up next to her. Brenda, her husband Luke, Carmen, and David did the same. Technically because Carmen and David were both classmates, that gave them five. Selena raised an eyebrow at her in question and she nodded. The other woman came over with her own boyfriend. 

From the looks on their other classmates, this was a very interesting development. It took Maddie several times to remind everyone to form groups because they were more interested in watching her and Selena chat quietly about them. Mr. Karson surprised everyone by showing up and joining the group with only three. Then their old math teacher, now a principal, showed up and sidled with them too. Mr. Karson caught her gaze and smiled at her with an approving nod. He and her parents were good friends so he probably already knew everything she’d been up to…minus the Avengers stuff, of course.

They got sent to the Thor and Cap stations first, which Darcy thought was either a really good sign or a really bad one. While Carmen, David, and Brenda all threw a tiny replica of Cap’s shield in a 3-hole Frisbee golf course on the baseball field, Darcy, Selena, and Mark had to throw a tiny, weighted version of Mew Mew down the first base line from home and see who got it farthest. 

It wasn’t until she turned to him and saw him with her phone taking pictures that she realized Bucky had pick-pocketed her. 

“Really?” she demanded, hands going to her hips, the tiny mew-mew still in hand. He snapped another picture, shaking with laughter. “You suck, Barnes.” 

When they switched and got to the Cap station, she, Selena, and Mark all gave their Frisbee’s to their partners. Bucky gave her an incredulous stare as Roger and Michael just shrugged and got on with it. 

“Show me what you got,” she taunted and his eyes narrowed before he joined the other two men. She smirked as Mark and Selena joined her. “This is gonna be good.” 

“Somehow, I don’t think you’re wrong,” Selena mused. As Mark doubled over in laughter at Roger’s pathetic first throw, she added way more quietly, “What do you think everyone would do if they realized just who was throwinga plastic version of Captain America’s shield right now?” 

Darcy blinked at Selena in shock but the other woman just looked back at her, amused. “Wha…?” 

“I watch the news,” she murmured back. “Unlike most of these morons.” 

Darcy opened her mouth to reply and then realized she didn’t know what to say. Selena was clearly not threatening her, just making conversation, but still… Selena gave her a sardonic grin. “Also, you weren’t the only one in England when the Keebler’s tried invading. I saw what you did with blonde and hunky. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome?” she asked, more than stated and the other brunette snickered. 

“I won’t say anything,” she assured her. Her eyes clouded. “God knows he’s been through enough. … History minor.” 

The last was probably at the completely confused face Darcy knew she had. Swallowing, she nodded slowly.

“You okay, Doll?” Bucky asked, rejoining them as he finished with four throws total (the first, he would later tell her, was just because he’d been getting used to the way the thing flew). Roger and Michael were scowling as they continued on the second and third basket. She turned to find him eying Selena cautiously. The other woman smirked back at them before turning and hollering at her boyfriend to get his ass in gear. Michael flipped her off but obligingly focused more intently on the basket. 

“Nothing makes sense anymore,” she whined quietly and Bucky chuckled. 

Roger and Michael finally finished, got their stamps and scores, and the group all headed to the next two stations. Darcy was pretty quiet, mind going through Selena’s revelations, behavior, and the possible repercussions. 

“She was army, remember?” Bucky finally whispered as they waited for the kid at the Hulk station to get everything back together. “I’d be really surprised if she didn’t see action, with everything happening in the world.” 

Darcy’s head whipped over to stare at Selena, who raised an eyebrow back at her in question. Darcy blinked again and then gave the other woman a puzzled but genuine smile. 

“That would explain a lot,” she murmured back to Bucky, relaxing. She paused. “You’re still gonna have Nat look into it, though, right?”

While she didn’t think Selena was working against them, she’d been wrong before. It couldn’t hurt to check. Her hand went to her stomach and the scar there.

“Already texted her,” Bucky assured her. “Now focus on this cause I think this is gonna be something I have to film.” 

Darcy did as she was told and found the Hulk station was a timed race—only it was on three foot stilts and you were dressed in an adult version of a Hulk costume. She doubled over laughing as Mark and Roger immediately began arguing over who was going to do it. 

Nearby, Carmen and David were also arguing over who was going to do the Ironman contest, which involved putting together a tower with jenga blocks and not having it fall over. Like the Hulk station, it was timed. The only difference between the two arguments seemed to be that whereas Mark and Roger both didn’t want to do their station, David and Carmen both _did_.

Carmen finally won she pointed out she had an engineering degree and he didn’t. 

Without even waiting for her to decide, Bucky moved to join the group at the tower table. She shot him a dirty look when she realized that meant she had to do the Hulk one. 

She vowed, once she finished the race to find Bucky sitting on the ground, holding his stomach as he laughed hysterically, to delete the video evidence he’d undoubtedly taken. 

After she was done hitting him for taking it in the first place, of course.

Selena had been laughing too but Darcy was fairly certain that was more to do with the fact Michael had taken two steps before falling flat on his face. Mark, however…

“Stop hitting me, woman!” he shouted, still laughing as she swatted at him. “Roger, help!” 

“You made me do the Hulk station,” Roger replied with a huff, moving off to the side and making it clear Mark was on his own. That set Bucky and Selena both off again. 

The next stations were Pietro and Wanda’s. Pietro’s was a simple foot-race, thank god. Wanda’s was slightly more complex—it was a timed race to try and get a marble through a maze. Only the damn maze was four feet by four feet and you had to move the entire thing by pulling on ropes. She quite happily left Bucky to it so she could run the race. To almost everyone’s surprise, she and Selena were finished seconds apart. 

“You’ve been working out,” the other woman noted as Brenda came huffing back to her husband. “You couldn’t do that in high school.” 

Darcy made a face. “Widow is training me,” she told her in a quiet voice. Selena’s eyes widened before an envious expression crossed her face. 

“Lucky you,” she said with all sincerity. Darcy made another face. 

“You say that but you haven’t had to deal with what she considers training,” she grumbled. “My bruises have mansions full of bruises.” 

“If it keeps you alive, that’s all that matters,” Selena told her matter-of-fact. Darcy gave her another look and Selena shrugged. “Army.” 

“Right,” she agreed and then shook her head. “This is really weird.” 

“A bit,” Selena agreed after a moment. She gave her a look. “Not bad weird though.” 

“No, not bad weird,” she nodded, giving her a smile. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Miguel glaring at the two of them. She smirked and nodded her head towards the rest of their classmates. “Especially given what it’s doing to all of them. This is even better than when I showed up to Prom.” 

Selena burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll notice this is now at 13 parts. I don't think it'll change again. :) That said, Saturday's not done, I just am at 3K and it's gonna be at least another 3K before I finish with it so I broke it into two parts. 
> 
> Also, I need to try and do some of these activities for my Amazing Race end of the activity next school year....


	9. Saturday Morning, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Saturday morning ends in a surprise revelation.

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

They’d moved on to the next two stations, which were Antman and Vision. She’d been wondering just what they had to do at these, all things considered. Maddie must have run out of her own ideas too though cause Vision’s was a bottle ring toss and Scott’s was a dart’s contest. Darcy happily let Bucky do the latter while she went to the ring toss. 

“Cheater,” Selena muttered with an amused smile when Bucky got all three of his clustered in the bullseye. 

“Not cheating, just talent,” Bucky retorted and Darcy about busted a rib laughing at the look on her old classmate’s face. 

They moved onto the next stations, which were more involved. War Machine’s was a shooting contest; you were given a beebee gun and asked to shoot at small paper plates hanging in the air that had what looked like the arc reactor painted on them. While Darcy thought that was rather demented, she went to hand the gun to Bucky but he shook his head. 

“I know Clint’s been training you,” he murmured. “You do it. She’s not exactly wrong about it being unfair.” 

He grimaced and she slowly nodded. If he wanted to defer, she’d let him. However, she knew she wasn’t going to get the same kind of score as him. Shrugging and deciding it was just for fun, she lined up with Selena and, surprisingly, Roger. 

“You shoot?” she asked as the people down the way finished setting up the plates. 

“Not really but Mark has issues with guns so…”

She twisted around to look at her old friend worriedly. He wasn’t paying attention to them, putting all his focus on Falcon’s station. She turned back to Roger. His fingers lightly brushed his side. “The restaurant was broken into when he was there after hours. The bullet only grazed him but…” 

She nodded, jaw tightening. Down the way, the kids got well out of the way and the all clear was given. She brought her gun up, eyes narrowed. In her minds eye, every single plate had the faceless visage of Mark’s burglar. 

When she put it down, Bucky and Selena were both staring at her again. “What?” she asked, frowning. 

“Clint’s gonna be unbearable when he hears about this,” Bucky informed her. Then he grinned proudly at her and picked her up, hugging her close. “I’m proud of you though.” 

“What’d I do?” she asked, baffled, and Selena snorted. 

“You didn’t even check your target’s, did you?” she asked and Darcy snapped her head around to see she hadn’t done too bad. Every single hole was above the center, about where a forehead would be if she was being honest with herself, but they were all hits. Selena’s were, of course, all dead center, but Roger had missed twice. 

Falcon’s station was using a drone to pick up a box and carry it to a taped off square on the ground. It was timed and as Bucky deftly maneuvered it, she couldn’t help but wonder what Sam would say if he knew his station was more geared towards Redwing than him. 

The final two stations were for Clint and Natasha. Clint’s was pretty obvious but Natasha’s had Darcy immediately making grabby hands. 

“You sure, Doll?” Bucky asked, eying the mini toy Widow Bites that had been attached to magnets. You had to throw them at a whiteboard which had Loki, Doom, and Crossbones drawn on them. Different body parts on each figure were for different points. He glanced back at the archery range. “I know you’ve practiced with Clint’s bow.” 

“Trust me,” she told him, curling her fingers back and forth. He shook his head but obligingly handed the toys to her, heading to the archery range and mumbling something about never letting Clint know. 

What she didn’t tell him was that she and Natasha had actually been practicing with her Bites using a set-up surprisingly similar to this one. The ONLY difference was that whereas she had a white board, Natasha had had her practicing with dummies that had been dressed up like the various villian’s they’d faced. 

Also Tony, which had been added after the man had annoyed her for the umpteenth time. 

She waited to go last, watching as everyone else went for the really obvious ones. She practiced with the weight difference and such off to the side a bit and by the time she came around, she felt she had a pretty good handle on them. Settling into the throwing pose Natasha had drilled into her for target practice, she could just make out Bucky frowning as he watched her. Then she turned to Loki and with a delighted grin, let all three of the widow bites go. 

All three hit his demented helmet hornes, which were worth 20 points each, the highest possible spot. 

Everyone stopped and stared, even the high school kids working the station. 

“How?” Selena finally demanded, hands going to her hips.

“I’ve had practice,” was all she said with a smug grin. 

“Remind me to have a talk with Natalia about what she’s actually training you in,” Bucky muttered as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. She snickered, leaning back into the embrace. 

Heading back over to the entrance, they waited for everyone else to finish their various stations, which didn’t take long. Most people had moved fairly quick through but even then, it was almost lunch-time by the time Maddie stood up with Mr. Karson and Mr. Johnson. 

“Thanks to everyone for participating, I know some of you weren’t as…enthusiastic…as I had hoped you’d be,” she started. “But I think we all had fun, right?” 

She looked so nervous about that that Darcy couldn’t help but clap and send up a whistle of agreement. Others did the same and Maddie looked pleased. 

“Alright, so Mr. Karson and Mr. Johnson had the high school kids calculate all the scores since we all know math is not my subject,” she said and several people laughed. Maddie stepped aside for the two men to present. 

“Before I begin, I just want to say I am incredibly proud and humbled by what I have seen today,” Mr. Karson said, looking them all over. “Yours was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever dealt with but I always felt it was worth it—and today you have all proven me correct.” 

He continued talking but Darcy got distracted by Bucky’s phone buzzing with a text. He kept one arm around her stomach from where they were propped on a picnic table bench and pulled his phone out with the other. After a minute he propped it up in front of her so she could see the message. It was from Natasha.

**“HYDRA had Selena Rivera and Carmen Montoya nee Rivera on their Phase One Kill List,”** it read. **“Rivera for being a military risk and Montoya for scientific risk. David Montoya was on the Phase Two list. Everyone else panned out. Files have been sent to your tablet when you have time. Tony and Steve are coming up with paperwork for all three now.”**

She and Bucky exchanged wide-eyed looks.

HYDRA had had several phases planned for Insight. The first one had all the really really high risks planned for elimination. She and Jane had been on the list due to their connection to Thor. Those not connected to the Avengers or SHIELD had been the military people who could seriously oppose them and the scientific minds who could help the military make it happen. For some reason, HYDRA had seriously thought Selena and Carmen could have been serious trouble if left alive too long. Which, thinking back to high school, made a certain amount of sense. 

“They’re twins,” she murmured, still in shock as she stared at Selena and Carmen, who were sitting nearby and listening to Karson as they cracked jokes at each other. “If Selena needed scientific help, she would have gone straight to Carmen.” 

“And probably vice versa,” Bucky murmured. He seemed more thoughtful. “What does David do again?” 

Her eyes flicked over to Carmen’s husband, who was shaking his head at his wife and sister-in-law. “He’s a paramedic,” she answered quietly. “Most of the Rivera and Montoya clans are in similar professions, actually; most of the firefighters come from them and I think the current Sheriff is a Montoya.” 

Bucky texted Natasha back but she didn’t catch what he said. Selena must have felt her gaze because she looked up then, quirking an eyebrow up. Darcy shook her head and mouthed “later” at her. She nodded and then turned back to Karson as he finished up. 

“And now, I’m sure you all want me to stop talking so you can find out who won and what’s for lunch,” he said and that had almost everyone cheering. Karson laughed and accepted the paper from the high school kids. 

“Alright, the winner of the Ironman station is…Carmen Montoya!” 

Their team cheered as Carmen smugly went up to accept her little toy replica of Stark Tower. Darcy snorted. 

The awards continued like that, with her team taking a good portion of the awards. Darcy herself won Thor’s, which she delightedly accepted. Her prize was a toy replica of Mew Mew and she laughed as she posed with it. When she sat back down with Bucky, he was just finishing sending the photo he’d taken to Thor himself. 

Then Bucky won the Cap throw and it was her turn to take photo’s of the other man with the life-size plastic replica of the Shield. 

Darcy also won the Widow Bites throw (which she’d already known, as the kid running it had told her). Her prize had been the toy Widow Bites themselves. Selena won the Quicksilver race and the War Machine station, getting a gift card to Payless and an action figure of Rhodey. the Latino kept glancing at the figure in her hands with the oddest look on her face. 

Then it came time for the team wins. Darcy suspected she already knew who was going to get it, based on the number of wins her team had in the individual stations. She wasn’t wrong and as she accepted the poster, she caught Kat’s eye and decided she would give it to her sister. 

“I’ll give mine to your parents,” Bucky murmured as they headed for the buffet line set up against the wall leading into the cafeteria. “They can put it in their classroom or something.” 

“Mom,” she advised. “Dad teaches history but mom’s fifth grade, her kids will appreciate it more.” 

“Done,” he agreed. “Are you going to tell them they’re going to be offered jobs?”

She glanced over at Selena, Carmen, and David. “Selena, maybe,” she said. “But Carmen and David don’t seem to know about either of us so I think I’ll wait.” 

As Bucky got their food, Darcy scrolled through her phone. She’d texted Natasha asking for the basic file on Selena. Even that was ridiculously long. Eventually she just texted the redhead back and asked for a summary. 

**“She was one of the only women on an elite squad in special forces,”** Natasha said. **“SHIELD approached her but she turned them down because she wanted to finish her tour in the Middle East.”**

She was nodding, remembering Selena’s words and behavior. That made sense. Then she got another text. 

**“Rhodey knows her,”** it said. **“She was one of the only other survivors when Tony got taken back in ‘08.”**

And just like that she understood exactly why Selena was keeping her mouth shut about who Bucky was.

“Selena, can we talk?” she asked abruptly and the other woman nodded, handing her plate over to Michael. The two left, walking aimlessly towards the baseball field. It was cleaned up now, everything already packed and put away. 

“You were with Tony in Afghanistan,” she stated and Selena didn’t look surprised. 

“I wondered if you’d find out,” she replied. “Yeah. I wasn’t in the same vehicle, I was with Colonel Rhodes, but I was there.” 

“You survived though.” 

“Cause the Colonel pulled me down underneath the car and called for an emergency evac,” she snorted. “I was stupid, young. Naive.” 

“Did you get hit?” 

“Body armor,” she answered, grimacing as she rubbed at her chest. “Broke two ribs but that was the extent of my damage. I was on medical leave for two months while they healed.” 

“You got back in though, you didn’t leave?” 

“I was on security detail and I failed,” Selena said, jaw tight. “I thought about it but I decided I would find the fuckers who did it and I would end them. I couldn’t do that as a civilian.” 

“Then Tony broke himself out,” Darcy noted and Selena smiled wryly. 

“And blasted them all to shit himself,” she agreed. “He sent me a check, compensation, I guess, even though I failed. I gave it to Carmen for Santiago’s college fund.” 

“Would you be willing to work with him? Again, I mean? And officially, with him as your boss and not your objective?”

Selena stared at her for several minutes. “Are you offering me a job, Lewis?” 

“No, Captain Rogers will be,” she corrected. She looked away, not wanting to see her expression at her next words. “I had the team look into you because of how different you are. Apparently HYDRA really hated you and your sister.” 

“Carmen? Why Carmen?” Selena asked, tensing up. 

“Because she’s an engineer and a smart one at that,” Darcy told her. “Both of you were on the Phase One kill list for Insight. It meant they thought you were more likely to give them trouble militarily and scientifically when they took over.”

“Best to get us out of the way first,” Selena said shortly. “Before we became a thorn in their side.” 

“Exactly,” she said. “I was on the list too because of my connection to Thor and the rest of the team.” 

“It’s a fucked up thing to have in common, to know Nazi’s want us dead.” 

“Just means we’re doing something right,” she smiled and Selena snickered. “Anyway, all of that plus your military record itself…That’s good enough for us and we have a shortage of security people we all feel we can trust.” 

Unsaid was the fact that Darcy herself trusted her. She wouldn’t have, back in high school, but everything she’d found out, everything she’d seen…Selena had grown up and definitely for the better. 

“Let me think about it,” the other woman said after a moment. “Where would I be stationed?” 

“The Tower, probably,” she shrugged. “Maybe the facility upstate. I honestly don’t know but it would definitely be in New York.”

Selena nodded slowly. Then she pinned Darcy with a shrewd look. “And Carmen?” 

“Her and David are going to be offered contracts too,” she admitted. “But I don’t know if it’ll be for SI or the Initiative.” 

“Like I said, I’ll think about it,” Selena said. 

“All we can ask,” Darcy nodded. “Now come on, I’m starving and Bucky looks like he’s about to come over here.” 

They went back and joined the groups at the picnic tables, digging into the chicken and rice plates. Selena didn’t say anything to her sister and brother-in-law and kept pretty quiet most of the meal. As everyone started drifting away, Darcy and Bucky headed home. The banquet was that night and Darcy was really looking forward to spending time with everyone one last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last one for a few days. I know how this is gonna end though and it's almost definitely 13 chapters. 
> 
> Now, fancast Time! Selena is played by Lindsay Morgan, Carmen is played by Erica Cerra, and David is played by Niall Matter (cause I am Eureka trash). Mark and Roger, as noted by a few, is a REALLY blatant allusion to RENT so I’m not gonna give actors for them, lol, cause I think it’s probably obvious who I’m seeing in my head. Also, if you want to see gifs of them all acting like they act in my head…[go to my tumblr page for them!](http://jadelyntate.tumblr.com/post/145106888763/coughs-the-lewis-familyin-my-new-fic#notes)


	10. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky's preparations for the banquet get slightly derailed...

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

**“I’m glad you’re having so much fun. Looking forward to when you get home though. They’re all acting like lunatics. - BB”**

**“Thor’s acting like a giant peacock about you winning his contest. It’s adorable.”**

**“I really wish I could post the pictures of Bucky with the Frisbee game.”**

**“We’re upping your training when you get back because Steve’s complaining about not posting pictures from your reunion. It’s getting on my nerves.”**

**“Your reunion sounds like it was a lot more fun than mine was”**

**“I am disappointed that there wasn’t a white t-shirt contest. You definitely would have won.”**

**“Tony has been punished for his last text to you,”** Pepper told her about an hour after she’d gotten Stark’s text. **“And not the kind of punishment he likes.”**

“Ew,” Darcy muttered to herself, wrinkling her nose.

“What?” Bucky asked, looking over at her. 

“Pepper,” she answered, waving her cell in the air. “TMI about Stark.” 

Bucky made his own face before turning back to the suit he’d been inspecting critically. She frowned and asked him what was wrong. “I think your mother ironed this,” he said after a moment. 

She snorted. “Not likely, she won’t even iron my dad’s stuff,” she told him. She smirked. “Grams, on the other hand…” 

“I’m not sure if I should be amused or horrified that your grandmother may have ironed my suit,” he said, turning to stare at her. 

“Horrified,” she advised with a wicked smirk. “Cause I guarantee she took notes.” 

He made another face and she turned back to her make-up mirror with a cackle. 

“So what are you wearing for the banquet?” Ellie asked, coming into the room with Kat right behind her. She gave him a small smile. “Hey James.” 

“You were hot today,” the younger girl informed him as Darcy waved the blonde towards the dress bag hanging up on the door to the bathroom. Ellie went over and zipped it open to peak inside. Darcy turned back to her other sister in time to see her smirk. “All the girls kept talking about it. You should have taken off your shirt.” 

“I’m going to tell you a secret,” he told her seriously and Darcy watched as he leaned in close to her sister. “Imagination is a great thing.” 

Darcy cackled at the disgruntled look her sister gave him. “I am seventeen, you wouldn’t be the first guy I’ve seen without their clothes on,” she informed him. Darcy, Bucky, and Ellie all turned and stared at the youngest. She made another face. “That came out wrong.” 

“I hope so,” Bucky said and while he looked amused, his tone was nothing but serious. “Cause I’d hate to have to get blood on my hands while I’m here.” 

Kat squawked in outrage at the insinuation. Ellie cracked up laughing but Darcy just gave Bucky a look. He shrugged back and then went back to studying his suit. “I’m not sure I want to put it on if your grandmother ironed it,” he told her. 

“I ironed it,” her father said from the doorway. He looked amused and she wondered just how long he’d been listening.

“I’m honestly not sure if that’s any better, to be honest,” Bucky told him and her dad laughed. 

“Come on, you can get ready in mine and Elizabeth’s bathroom,” he said. When Bucky didn’t move, her dad raised an eyebrow. “Trust me, you want to do this. My mother, sister, and wife are all on their way up to help Darcy.” 

“Let me grab my things,” Bucky replied instantly. Darcy and her sisters all snickered. The two men disappeared down the stairs just as the elder Lewis’ all came in. 

“Let’s see the dress,” her mother demanded the moment they got inside and got settled. Grams was on the couch with Aunt Winni, Kat was at her work desk, and Mom was on her bed next to where Darcy was working on her make-up. Ellie pulled the dress out of the bag with a flourish. It was tan with red lace covering everything. She had a pair of nude heels to pair with it and her earrings were red stars. Her mother’s eyes lit up. “Ooooh, pretty!” 

“Did Stark or Potts buy that for you?” Ellie asked and Darcy stared at her in horror, eyes flickering to Kat. Aunt Winni, Grams, and Mom looked between all three of them in shock and surprise. Ellie winced. “Kat didn’t know, did she?” 

The aforementioned girl rolled her eyes. “Please, I knew who he was the moment I saw him,” she informed them. “I’m a seventeen year old girl who only pays attention to the hot guys in history class. I’m horny, not stupid.” 

“That’s a matter of debate,” Ellie muttered. 

“Say’s the girl who figured it out last,” Kat taunted. Ellie glared and their mother stepped in between them. 

“Stop, both of you,” she ordered. She looked between them firmly. “You can’t say anything to anyone. Not even Oliver or Katie.” 

“Katie recognized him too and she thinks it’s the coolest thing ever…and she demands you get her Cap’s number,” Kat told her. Darcy rolled her eyes, part of her still tense at the thought of her sisters knowing but a larger part relieved she didn’t have to keep lying. 

“Sorry, I like Steve too much to inflict your best friend on him,” she told her and Kat snickered. 

“I told her you’d say that.” 

“I won’t tell anyone, not even Oliver,” Ellie assured them and Kat nodded her agreement, also adding that Katie pinkie-swore to keep her mouth shut. The blond hesitated a moment. “It’s not safe, is it? You dating him?” 

“We’re not actually dating,” Darcy told them. As before, she got disbelieving looks at the admission. “It’s just…well, easier to explain him as a boyfriend, I guess.” 

“This is real life, not a fanfic!” Kat said, exasperated. She threw up her hands. “Seriously, why do that? It’s so…cliche.” She wrinkled her nose. 

“Cause the best covers are the ones that are true,” Mom said. She glanced at the door and then gave Darcy a sympathetic look. “How long have you been in love with him?” 

“I am not—” 

“Darcy Anne, don’t you lie to us,” Grams broke in before she could finish. Her grandmother looked fierce as she stared at her. “I know you—and you are in love with that boy.” 

“‘That boy’ is as old as you, Mother,” Aunt Winni said dryly. She was ignored. 

“And that boy is ridiculous over you,” Grams continued. “I haven’t seen a man look at a woman that way since your father came back to introduce me to your mother.” 

Darcy blushed furiously as her aunt nodded in amused agreement. Her mother leaned over and ran a hand down the back of her head. “Why are you trying to ignore this? It’s obvious you are well-matched.” 

Darcy didn’t answer, not sure if she could. What if it all went to hell?

“You don’t want to change anything,” Kat said and she looked both amused and disgusted at her. She finally settled on a scowl. “Seriously, not a fanfic!” 

“I feel like my entire life is a fanfic these days,” Darcy sighed. “And yeah, I don’t want things to change. If he knew about…” 

“Nothing would change,” her mother assured her. 

“Except you’d be getting laid,” Grams offered. 

“Oh my god!” Darcy groaned, blushing again and covering her face with her hands. 

“I don’t know why you’re embarrassed,” Mom said. “If I were having the attention of a man like that…” She trailed off and Darcy peeked through her fingers to see she had the sappiest look. Darcy wrinkled her nose when she realized the other four looked just as sappy. 

“I am not discussing my imaginary sex-life with you,” Darcy informed them firmly, though her words were still muffled by her hands. “I have to get ready.” 

“And then have all the sex when he sees you in that dress,” Kat nodded, as if that were the most logical leap in the world. “Good plan.” 

“Katherine!” Darcy yelped as her mother, aunt, and grandmother all laughed. 

“I don’t know why you expect anything different from them,” Ellie told her. She scowled. “And really, you’re getting off light.” 

“Yeah, we were way worse with Oliver when she brought him home,” Kat agreed with a wicked smirk at their older sister. Ellie glared.

“So, what’s the plan for your hair?” Grams asked, effectively stopping anything more between her oldest and youngest granddaughters. “I’m expecting something fantastic.” 

“Bun on the neck,” she answered after a moment. “And why are you expecting something fantastic?” 

“I stole your phone when you were in the shower,” her grandmother answered calmly. “Your friend Natasha had a lot to say on what you should look like tonight. She was really quiet charming, you should bring her back next time you visit. She sounds like we’d get along well. And she doesn’t have a Grams, does she?” 

Darcy took a deep breath and turned back to her mirror. 

She was not thinking of her grandmother adopting Natasha. She wasn’t. Nope. Not happening. 

It was totally going to happen. Shit. 

“I think you broke her,” Kat noted in glee just as there was a knock on the door. She looked over in time to see Bucky poke his head inside. He gave the women a small smile. 

“I forgot my toiletries bag,” he apologized and went over to grab it from next to Grams. When he turned, he jumped a bit but didn’t stop on his way back out the door. Kat was biting her fist and the moment the door closed again, she practically fell to the floor laughing. 

“Did you pinch his ass?” Mom asked, amused and Darcy’s mouth dropped open as she stared at her grandmother in horror. 

“Just as firm as it looks,” Grams nodded in satisfaction as Ellie joined their sister on the floor. Grams grinned at her. “You could bounce a quarter off cheeks like that—always a good sign for the bedroom.” 

Darcy groaned. 

~~*~~

Unfortunately, her grandmother insisted on the line of discussion. It finally took Ellie pointing out Darcy couldn’t accurately get her make-up done if she was a tomato for the woman to stop. 

Then, once Darcy’s make-up was finished, Grams started in again by wondering out loud how big his package was. Grabbing her phone to try and ignore the ensuing discussion, she texted Natasha. 

**“This is all your fault.”**

**“Your grandmother is a wonderful woman,”** Natasha replied back instantly. It said a lot that Darcy didn’t even have to explain what she was blaming the redhead for. **“I’m looking forward to meeting her face to face.”**

**“What did you tell her?”** she texted back.

**“That you two are being ridiculous. We sent Bucky with the hope you two would stop and get on with it. She was kind enough to update us on your deplorable lack of progress in that regard.”**

**“We? Who’s we?”**

**“The team. Steve said if Bucky doesn’t get off his ass, he’s going to do something drastic. I’m not sure what he considers drastic but Sam and Scott seemed to think it was funny.”**

Darcy stared at her phone long enough she got another text. 

**“Just be glad we didn’t go with Barton’s idea,”** it read. **“He wanted to lock you in the closet with that truth gas we found HYDRA working on last month.”**

Darcy could just imagine the disaster that would have been. **“Thank you for talking him out of it.”**

**“Oh it’s still on the table,”** Natasha replied. **“If something hasn’t changed when you come home. Jane offered to help.”**

“Traitors, all of them,” she muttered as she put her phone away in disgust. 

“Who’s a traitor?” Bucky asked and Darcy looked up to find him in the doorway. The other five women were stunned silent at the sight of him and Darcy completely understood. 

It wasn’t much different from his other suit only he wasn’t wearing his jacket, his white button-down shirt wasn’t buttoned all the way up yet, and he’d already rolled up the sleeves to his elbows. He’d have to unroll them when they headed out but for now…

She swallowed heavily as she realized he was looking just as awed by her as she was staring at him. 

“Can I see your arm?” Kat blurted out suddenly and Bucky gave her a startled look.

“Smooth, Kat, real smooth,” Ellie snorted. 

Bucky looked at her. “They know?” he asked, a bit panicky. 

“Apparently the only thing to pay attention to in history class is the hot guys,” she told him and then realized what she’d sort of just admitted to. 

“You are not as subtle as you think you are,” Ellie added. “And I’m with Kat, can we see the arm?” 

“Girls,” Mom scolded lightly. 

Bucky looked at Darcy and she shrugged, giving him a look that told him it was his choice. Slowly, he reached over and taking a deep breath, snapped off the wrist watch that kept the arm camouflaged. His arm shimmered a moment before the metal plates all appeared. 

“Well that’s a handy device,” Aunt Winni noted as Kat ignored his personal space and crowded in to poke at the metal.

“Stark made it,” he answered, looking down at Kat in both surprise, confusion, and a smidgen of amusement. 

Kat was frowning, looking unhappy. She looked back up at him. “Does it hurt?” 

“No,” he answered quietly. “Not anymore. It used to, before Stark and T’Challa made me a new one.” 

“But it hurt before?” Kat pressed, looking unhappy.

Bucky’s eyes flickered at the women watching a moment before he looked back down at her. “HYDRA didn’t care if it hurt,” he finally told her softly. She sniffled, Bucky’s eyes widened in panic, and then she threw her arms around him in a hug. 

“HYDRA can suck big monkey balls,” she mumbled against his shirt. He barked out a laugh. 

“That they can,” Mom said. Grams was scowling and Aunt Winni didn’t look any happier. Ellie was sniffling too and Darcy and Bucky exchanged bewildered but touched looks. 

“I’m going to tell them that the next time I go out with Steve to face them,” Bucky told Kat and she laughed. His arms, both arms she was pleased to see, came up and wrapped around her back. Darcy could see the conflicting expressions on his face before he finally leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you, kiddo.” 

“For what,” she asked, leaning back to wipe at her eyes. 

But Bucky refused to answer and Darcy could see her mother, aunt, grandmother, and older sister all watching teary-eyed as well. 

“Come on, Kat, lets go get the camera set up downstairs,” Ellie said and her sisters took off down the stairs but not before Kat gave him one more hug and Ellie squeezed his metal hand reassuringly. Bucky looked completely lost. Darcy sent a look at the other women and they nodded, shuffling off down the stairs to give them privacy. 

“They didn’t care,” he said once the door was closed. He sounded confused and awed at the same time and she went over to stand in front of him. He looked down at her. “They really…” 

“They adore you,” she told him and then took a deep breath. “Not that I blame them. You’re kind of fantastic.” 

“They’re fantastic, you're fantastic,” he corrected immediately, shaking his head. “I’m just…” 

“A hero?” 

“I’m not…” 

“We’ve had this argument before,” she told him before he could start. “If my family can see what you are, why can’t you?” 

He was quiet. “And what am I?” he asked lowly, staring down at her, eyes flickering between hers. 

“A good man,” she answered without hesitation. She bit her lip, wondering if she really dared. Apparently she did... “The man I…” 

“Yeah?” he asked, eyes bright as he stared down at her, a soft smile on his face. 

“I—wait, what?” 

“The man you…?” he teased gently 

It hit her. “You knew,” she breathed out, eyes wide.

“I was just waiting for you to figure it out,” he agreed softly, one hand coming up and twirling around a loose curl. She took a deep breath, feeling a bit light-headed at the implications. So many little thing suddenly made sense. She focused back on him as he cupped her cheek. “I could have waited for you forever if I had to.” 

“Bucky, I…” 

“I love you too.” 

She stared at him, stunned. 

“Speechless, huh?” he teased lightly. “I never thought I’d see the day.” 

“You…wait, what?” 

“You didn’t want anything to change and neither did I,” he told her, one hand gravitating to her waist to gently tug her closer. “But I love you, Darcy, and it's time we both stopped pretending.” 

“You’re not just saying that cause my family—” 

“I knew before but your family confirmed it to me cause they have the subtlety of a rampaging rhino," he told her with a flash of a grin. She snorted in agreement. "Also, Steve and Natasha are not as subtle as they think they are. I knew exactly why they wanted me to come. Remember, it wasn’t their idea to fake a relationship—it was mine.” 

“Why?” she asked, baffled. 

“Cause I would take what I could get,” he admitted lowly. His hand on her cheek tightened a bit. “Even if it wasn’t real, I wanted…” 

“Fanfic,” she mumbled and his brow furrowed. 

“Pardon?” 

“Something Kat said,” she told him, shaking her head. “Ignore it.” 

“Not sure if I should but okay,” he said, lips curling again. “Darcy?” 

“Yeah?” 

“We’re going to be late to the banquet.” 

“I…you drop this on me and you’re worried about being late?!” she demanded. 

“No, but you were the one who wanted to be on time,” he reminded her. He smiled. “I could stand like this all night.” 

“Well, I can’t!” her grandmother yelled through the door and both of them jumped. “So either kiss or go to the damn dinner!” 

“Mother!” her parents shouted as Kat, Ellie, and her aunt could all be heard giggling. 

“For once, I think I agree with your crazy grandmother,” Bucky said and they both ignored the indignant “hmph!” that came through the door. “Darcy…” 

She leaned up and kissed him. His lips were firm, smooth, and when he tentatively touched her own with his tongue, she opened her mouth to find he tasted faintly of mint toothpaste. 

“I can’t hear anything,” Kat could be faintly heard. “Are they kissing?” 

“I don’t know,” her grandmother said, a bit louder. “We could peek inside?”

“Don’t you dare!” her father scolded. “Downstairs, you scarlet women!” 

“Ooh, a literary reference, Dad means business!” Kat said as they heard them move on. 

Darcy and Bucky broke apart with a laugh. 

“I love your family,” Bucky said after a moment, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. “But Darce?” 

“Yeah?” she asked, beaming up at him. 

“I think we need to try that again,” he told her with a twinkle in his eye. “Without the audience and their commentary.” 

“You have never had a better idea,” she said and kissed him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This kinda got away from me. Wasn't exactly how I planned it but then Bucky was like, you know what, screw that. Okay Bucky, you do what you do. Part of me feels this is a bit rushed but at the same time...it probably would happen in a big emotional flash.
> 
> Three more chapters (including the banquet!)


	11. The Banquet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky discuss them as they go to the banquet...where they enjoy one more evening of old and new friends.

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

Darcy had never blushed so much as she did when they’d finally stopped kissing long enough to go back downstairs. Wolf whistles, smug grins, and giggling met her. Her father walked over to Bucky as her sisters grabbed her and started talking a mile a minute. She didn’t hear a word of it, watching the two men. 

Bucky looked about ready to bolt before he took a deep breath and planted himself in place. Her father’s lips flickered up in a smug grin of his own before he clapped Bucky on the shoulder. 

“Remember what I said before?” he asked just loud enough Darcy could hear him.

“Yes, sir.” 

“Good,” her father nodded. “Cause I still stand by it.” 

“Nowhere to run!” her mother mocked. “Really, Weston, you imagine you’d be able to actually take him?!” 

“Yes,” he answered, indignant, and Darcy saw a brief flash cross Bucky’s faces before he quickly hid it when her father turned to study him again. Dad’s eyes lingered on the arm again. “Maybe.” 

“I think you’d probably do a lot better than you think, sir,” Bucky said and Darcy wasn’t the only one who heard the unspoken “but you wouldn’t do much damage.”

“Perhaps, but I imagine getting shot hurts like a bitch,” her father said and Bucky nodded. 

“You’re not wrong,” he agreed. He hesitated a moment and then looked at her dad head on. “You’d have to get in line to kill me though. The team may be slightly fanatic about Darcy’s safety, even Scott. Maybe especially Scott.”

“Thor’s worse,” she corrected him even as she grimaced at the thought of how Scott big-brothered her. “But yeah, you’d have a long line to work through, Dad. It’s annoying.” 

“Stark blew up a cartel when we heard a rumor they were going to try and get to Jane by going after her minions,” Bucky told him. “It was nothing even remotely concrete, Darcy wasn’t mentioned by name, it was all just a rumor, but he did it anyway. What did he say when Hill confronted him?” The last was said to her and she rolled her eyes.

“‘My explosions were smaller than what would have happened if they took Darcy so you’re welcome,’” she repeated sarcastically. Kat cheered. 

“And Hill accepted it without any further question,” Bucky smirked. “Cause he wasn’t wrong; between Stark, Thor, and Natasha, not to mention myself and Steve, we probably would have had a LOT more destruction of private property.” 

“Hulk,” Darcy groaned. “Remember Hulk? Right after Ian?” 

“How could I forget, Pretty Loud Mouth,” he teased and she made a face. 

“Pretty Loud Mouth?” Kat and Ellie demanded, delighted. 

“Hulk doesn’t use names, he uses descriptors,” she admitted after Bucky gave her a smug grin. “That’s his for me.” 

Her sisters and Grams all cracked up laughing. Aunt Winni was also grinning but it was her mother and father she was more worried about. “What’s his descriptor for you?” her mother asked Bucky. 

Bucky smiled wickedly. “Soldier,” he said and Darcy glared at him. He grinned at her. “Steve is Puerto Rico.” 

“Puerto Rico?” Mom asked, confused, but her father burst out laughing. 

“His suit looks more like the Puerto Rican flag than it does the American one,” he told her. To Bucky he added, “I’ve been saying it for years but she never understood.” 

Bucky smirked. “Steve hates it,” he told him. “He actually spent an entire hour with the Hulk arguing about it.”

“Actually, I have pics of that on my phone,” she said and went to go get it but Grams, of all people, spoke up. 

“You’re late to the banquet,” she told her. “Go, show us the pictures later.” 

“Oh!” she exclaimed, rushing to grab her things. Bucky just kept quiet, shaking his head as he accepted the car keys from Kat. When Darcy came back, he smiled indulgently at her. She scowled at him. “Stop it.” 

“Nope,” he said, grinning. “Not gonna.” 

“Yes.”

“No.”

She narrowed her eyes at him but he was seemingly in too good a mood to have it affect him. She scowled, seeing a downside of them…dating? Is that what they were doing, dating?

She was quiet as they said goodbye (Kat snapping a few pictures before they drove away). 

“Alright, what’s wrong?” Bucky finally asked as they got on the highway. The banquet was being held in a local lodge, about ten minutes outside the city. It was a beautiful location, Darcy had worked there in high school, and there was really only two turns to get there so she was free to mostly keep her attention on her thoughts. Unfortunately, Bucky knew her rather well…

“What, exactly, are we?” she asked, twisting in her seat to look at him. “I mean, yeah, love declarations and kissing aside…” 

“You’re my girl,” he said, pulling his hand off the stick to tangle in hers. “That means whatever you want it to mean.”

“And if I want it to mean we’re boyfriend/girlfriend?” 

“Then we’re boyfriend/girlfriend.” 

“What about lovers?” she asked and was rewarded with the car slightly swerving before he looked over at her. 

“Then we’ll be lovers,” he said, giving her an appreciative once-over that had certain body parts sit up and take notice. She firmly told her body to calm down, nothing was gonna happen tonight. He smirked, as if hearing her thoughts. “Like I said, I can wait forever for you. I _will_ wait forever for you.”

Darcy stared at him and he stared back. “Eyes on the road,” she finally ordered and he did as told, a smirk playing on his lips. She chewed on her own. “You’re really not saying this because my family has no filters?”

“Like I said before, they made it obvious I wasn’t just having a very active imagination when it came to you,” he told her, squeezing her hand. “But no, I’ve felt like this for months. It’s been driving Steve and Natasha crazy.” 

She recalled Natasha’s texts and smiled. “Yeah, she may have said something to that effect. He shook his head. 

“You know, I trained her way back when,” he reminded her. “But that woman…” 

“She likes to meddle,” she agreed. 

“She and your grandmother are going to get on like a house on fire,” he snorted. Darcy groaned but secretly, she actually kind of liked the idea of her family liking the redhead…and the rest of her New York family. 

“Maybe we should bring the rest of the team next time,” she said and her looked at her again. 

“As long as I’m there when Grams meets Steve,” he said and they both laughed. 

“So…boyfriend, huh?” she asked after she directed him to the highway turn-off. 

“Seems the popular title nowadays,” he agreed and she squeezed his hand. “Also, your hair’s mussed. Sorry about that.” 

She turned more firmly in her seat, flipping the visor down to see her hair was indeed mussed to the point it was obvious what they’d been up to. No wonder her family had been so smug and amused. She went to slick it back and had a different idea. She pulled out her phone, leaning back to take a satisfied selfie. 

“Natasha?” Bucky asked knowingly. 

“Might as well,” she answered and sent the photo off. It pinged back almost immediately. 

**“Tell James to stop mussing up your hair, he’ll have plenty of time to do that when you get back to New York.”** She rolled her eyes, texting back that she liked him mussing up her hair. 

Another ping echoed in the car but it was Bucky’s phone, not hers. He handed it to her and she opened it to find it was a text from Steve. 

“‘About damn time,’” she read aloud and Bucky shook his head, chuckling.

“Damn punk,” he said. “Needs to take his own advice, the ass.”

“‘I told my girl,’” she said aloud as she texted back. “‘Now it’s your turn to come clean.’” 

Bucky chortled. “Oh, that’ll get him all riled up,” he said and indeed Steve immediately texted back with a serious of annoyed emoji’s. Bucky caught her eye. “Last conversation we had about me’n you, I told him I’d tell you as soon as he told them.”

Darcy snickered but was distracted by the appearance of the lodge. She directed him to the gate, which was open for the attendees. She could just make out a few cars she recognized from that morning and there was laughter and music coming from out of the building in front of them. 

“You ready, Doll?” 

“Let’s do this thing,” she agreed and they got out.

“There she is!” Carmen called out when they stepped inside. “We were thinking you weren’t going to show!”

“Looks like they almost didn’t,” Selena drawled with a knowing smirk. Darcy smirked right back as Bucky preened. 

“Would you have blamed me?” she asked and the other woman laughed. 

“Hell no,” she agreed. “If I had a man like that, we’d never leave the house.” 

“Thanks,” Michael said dryly behind her as Mark and Roger cracked up laughing.

“So, food?” she asked and David laughed. 

“Running a bit behind,” he told her. “Delores retired a few years ago and ever since, the kitchen hasn’t been the same.” 

She and David had both worked at the Lodge under Deloras, the head cook. “That woman was scarily efficient,” she agreed. “Who replaced her?” 

“Marge Cool,” he answered. “Hasn’t been the same since, though the foods just as tastey.”

“Always good to hear,” Bucky said. “I’m starving.”

“So, James, could I interest you in a game of pool?” Roger asked.

“Don’t fall for the innocent look,” Mark warned before Bucky could open his mouth. “He’s a shark.”

Bucky smirked. “So am I,” he told the man before turning to the blond’s partner. “Rack em up.” 

“Oh this should be interesting,” Darcy told the women as David and Michael joined the men at the pool table. “Bucky’s only ever lost to Clint back home.”

“We have a table at the restaurant, in the back,” Mark told her, joining the women by the door. Money had appeared on the table and Darcy shook her head. Of course one of them upped the ante. “Roger has never been beaten.” 

“Should be entertaining,” Selena said and they watched. As Bucky bent over to shoot, his ass in their direction, all three women and Mark sighed appreciatively. “Definitely a lucky lady.” 

“Hmmhmm,” Carmen agreed. 

“I’ll say.” 

The tips of Bucky’s ears turned red and Darcy laughed. 

Ten minutes later, Mark and Carmen were talking about her kids and Selena was sitting next to Darcy, sipping a cocktail. “I’m going to do it,” she said suddenly and Darcy tore her gaze away from Bucky to see Selena looking out the window. 

“You sure?” she asked and Selena nodded, looking back at her. 

“I went into the army to protect people,” she told her. “Since I’ve got out I haven’t…I want that again.” 

“Okay,” Darcy said. “Do you have a preference as to where you’d be put?” 

“Wherever you are,” she said instantly and Darcy stared at her. Selena smirked. “Something tells me that’s where all the fun is. Also, he won’t be around all the time and something tells me your penchant for getting into trouble hasn’t gone away since high school.” 

“From all the stories I’ve heard, it’s gotten worse,” Bucky said, joining them as Roger and Michael haggled over the bet for their game. He slid behind Darcy at the table, one hand resting on her neck while the other stole her margarita. “Darcy’s gonna be the official PR director soon, probably in the next few months. She’ll need a security detail.” 

“I could do that,” Selena nodded, draining her glass. Her eyes flickered to Darcy. “If you’re okay with that.” 

“Better someone I know than someone I don’t,” she shrugged. She sighed. “I just wish I didn’t have to have one.” 

“Not happening,” Bucky said bluntly. She could practically feel the scowl he was undoubtedly wearing. “You’re too much of a target…especially if you and I get outed.” 

“I know,” she assured him, turning in her chair to lightly caress a cheek. “I said I _wish_ I didn’t have to have one, not that I don’t understand why I do.” 

“Do you think the Black Widow will train me?” Selena asked suddenly. She was looking expectantly at Bucky. She glanced at him just in time to see her boyfriend smile.

“I think she’ll insist on it,” he told her and she grinned. He paused. “I could, too, if you wanted.” 

Selena lit up like a Christmas tree. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry for the delay but the food is nearly ready,” a voice called out. It was Katie and she could see the girl glance gleefully at her and Bucky. Kat must have told her already. “If you’ll please take your seats, we’ll be serving momentarily.” 

“That’s our cue,” Bucky said as the men playing pool agreed to leave the game alone until after dinner. “You joining us, Selena?” 

“If you don’t mind,” she said and they assured her they didn’t. They all gravitated to one of the larger tables, capable of holding eight people, Darcy looked around. Carmen was sitting next to her husband, teasing him about his lack of pool prowess. Mark was snuggled into Roger’s side, the two talking softly. Selena was sitting across from Darcy, her sister on one side and her boyfriend on the other as she checked her phone. Bucky was next to Darcy. Across the room, she could see the rest of her classmates all sitting, talking, and in many cases, laughing about old high school hijinks.

“I’m glad I came,” she told Bucky quietly as the servers appeared with their plates. She glanced at her table, with the expected and unexpected people around it, before turning back to him. “Thanks for coming with.” 

He smiled softly at her, reaching up to tuck an errant curl back behind her ear. 

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m leaving who Steve’s boo is up to you. :)
> 
> One more chapter and the epilogue!


	12. Sunday Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky, the morning after.

_And I hold my favorite thing_  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

Darcy sighed as she snuggled back down in the bed. It was warm, comfy, and for once, Bucky wasn’t stiff as a board in fear of sharing a bed with her. They’d been doing it all week but this was the first time she thought he’d actually gotten a good sleep without the aid of utter exhaustion. 

“You okay there?” he asked, voice rough with sleep but amused. She propped her chin up on his chest, looking up at him. 

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Just happy.” 

“Me too,” he said, voice clearing as he woke more and more up. He snuck his right arm under her neck, pulling her more firmly against him. His left arm, the metal one, came up to push her hair out of her face. His lips quirked up. “I could get used to this.” 

“Mmmhmm,” she agreed, still just smiling at him. She was silent a moment and then… “I never thought I’d say this because I hated this place when I left, but I kind of don’t want to leave.”

“I know the feeling,” he agreed. “But you’d be bored in a week.” 

“I would,” she agreed. “I think…I see the appeal, now. I didn’t back then. Thank you for that.” 

“It was always there,” he told her. “You’d have seen it eventually—there’s nothing wrong with the quiet life.”

“Yeah, but it’s better with you,” she told him and he smiled again. 

“Like New York is better with you,” he replied and it was her turn to smile. 

“So what’s gonna happen when we get back?” she asked, head slightly tilted as his hand started scratching through the back of her head. If she was a cat, she’d be purring. 

“Nothing has to change,” he answered and then paused, his hand stopping for a moment. “Except the kissing. I would really like to keep the kissing.” 

“Just the kissing?” she teased, eyes bright, and he growled slightly. 

“Anything you want to give me, Doll,” he told her and she giggled. “I’m serious!” 

“I know,” she told him and for the first time ever, she wasn’t feeling pressured to give something she wasn’t ready for. God, she loved this man. 

There was a ping from Bucky’s phone then and she and he both groaned. Bucky let go of her hair to reach across her to grab it, bringing his bare chest in licking distance. She resisted the urge, though a giddy thrill went through her at the thought she could probably get away with it now. 

“Why am I not surprised?” he mumbled with a chuckle as he read whatever it was he’d gotten. He replied to it and then placed it back on the shelving headboard. He sighed and then gently pulled his right arm out from under her. “Come on, time to get up.” 

“Who says?” she demanded with a slight whine. 

“Trust me, you want to be up,” he told her with a chuckle, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He stretched up towards the ceiling, giving her a truly spectacular view of his bare back. He was just in boxers and she watched him slip off the bed and head towards the bathroom, thinking her grandmother had not been wrong about that ass. Kat knocked and poked her head into the room just as the door closed. 

“Hey, good, you’re awake,” she said. “Dad wants to know if you all want breakfast?” 

Bucky poked his head back out of the bathroom, hair disheveled around his face. “Can you tell him I’m really, really, like, a dozen people hungry?” he asked and then had to repeat the request when her sister just stared, mouth agape. “Kat?” 

“Sorry, yes, I can do that,” she said and after giving Darcy a wide-eyed grin, slipped back out of the room. The life assistant shook her head as the door to the bathroom closed again. 

Kat was going to be insufferable now that she’d finally seen him shirtless. 

~~*~~

Darcy was the last one down, Bucky having dressed and then heading down as she’d gotten into the shower. She almost said fuck it and dragged him back as the kiss lingered but eventually he’d pulled away. 

He was going to be the death of her sanity, she was sure of it. 

“That is a ridiculous amount of food,” she said when she stepped inside and found both her parents, plus her aunt and grams cooking. They all ignored her, too focused on what they were doing. A glance into the dining room found her sisters and Katie, who’d crashed with Kat last night, setting up what looked like a buffet line. “We expecting an army?” 

“Close,” Bucky said and motioned to the window. She glanced back and did a double-take, squinting. 

“Is that…?”

“The quinjet? Yes,” her boyfriend agreed. She looked at him, baffled. 

“Why is the quinjet coming in a for a landing on my parents back lawn?” 

“We’re supposed to go home this afternoon,” he reminded her.

“Yes, on a regular plane,” she agreed, still staring as the jet landed on the only rough spot in the otherwise green yard. 

“They were on the way back from a mission and decided to pick us up instead,” he told her with a smirk.

“Who’s idea was that?” she demanded. 

“Could have been any of them,” he answered just as her father cleaned his hands from where he’d been cutting up the slab of bacon he’d been working on. 

“Should I go and say hello or are you two going to keep talking?” he asked and she was out the door before he’d even finished. Bucky was right behind her and she could faintly hear the adults in her life all laughing. 

The back of the jet finally hissed open, Steve poking his head out. His worried look vanished when he saw the two of them standing side-by-side and he beamed. 

“You could have given more warning,” Bucky told his best friend as Darcy watched Natasha, Tony, Scott, Clint, Thor, Sam, Wanda, and Pietro all walk out. Bruce, Rhodey, and Vision were all missing and she wondered why. Thor bounded up to her and engulfed her in a hug, loudly proclaiming his excitement to see her so happy. She hugged back with a laugh. 

“I wasn’t allowed to,” Steve was telling Bucky when she finally pulled back from the Norse God. He jerked his head at Natasha. “She kept stealing my phone.” 

“You needed your rest,” she said calmly. She gave a slight smirk. “I have it on good authority you were out late.” 

Grams, Darcy thought with a sigh. Yup, that was gonna bite her in the ass, she was sure of it. 

“It’s about damn time,” Sam informed them as Pietro did a quick run around the house, skidding back to a stop next to his sister. He kept glancing back at her house and she had a sudden horrible feeling he’d seen her own sisters. She shuddered at the thought of the trouble him and Kat could get into. Wanda gave her an agreeing look but didn't vocally say anything. 

“Aw, Lewis, you really do like me,” Tony suddenly coo’d, looking at where her hand was clasped with Bucky’s. “Last night?” 

“What?” she asked, eyes narrowed as she focused more on him. 

“It happened last night, right?” he persisted and she nodded, looking baffled. 

“Yeees…” 

He smiled smugly and turned to the rest of the team. “You all owe me money,” he informed them and they rolled their eyes. 

“Me too,” Thor agreed with a smile. Natasha held out a hand expectantly. Tony’s delight in winning money was only slightly diminished at the thought of sharing it with Thor and Nat. 

“You couldn’t have done it yesterday morning?” Scott complained to her before turning back to the three bet winners. “And why do you need the money? It’s not like any of you are strapped for cash.” 

“You made a bet on when my daughter would get together with James?” her mother’s voice came over and Darcy watched in amusement as every single Avenger straightened to attention. She glanced over her shoulder to find her parents standing side by side. Neither looked amused, giving the team their patent disappointed!parent look. 

“Well, uh…” Tony floundered and it was glorious. If she could have gotten away with it, she would have taken video for Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy.

“And you didn’t think to add us to it?” her father continued, disappointed. The billionaire blinked, once, twice, and then beamed at them as they grinned. Damn. That was going to bite her in the ass. Her parents weren’t likely to care about his money, job, or reputation, which meant Tony would adore them. She sighed.

“I knew Lewis came from superior stock,” he declared and moved forward to greet her parents. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steve jump suddenly and she turned to find Grams was standing at his side, a smug grin on her face as Natasha smirked and and Clint bent over laughing. Darcy’s eyes widened as Steve turned a deep red. 

“Just as firm as I remember,” Grams said, nodding in satisfaction, to loud guffaws from Thor, Tony, Sam, Scott, and Pietro. Next to her, Bucky could barely breath, he was laughing so hard.

“Er, um, nice to meet you ma’am…?” Steve said and then gave the hysterical Bucky a deeply annoyed look. 

“Oh, we’ve met before, Captain,” Grams waved it away and he looked down at her in confusion. She smiled wickedly up at him. “Denver USO. I was blond then.” 

Steve frowned a moment, clearly trying to remember, before his eyes widened and he looked down at her incredulously. 

“Emma?” he asked, flabbergasted, and Grams smiled smugly at her family. 

“I told you he’d remember me.”

“Kind of hard not to,” Steve mumbled as Kat, Katie, and Ellie came out to join them. Katie and Kat were practically vibrating as they drank in the sight of the team and Ellie was shyly hiding behind her hair, something Darcy hadn’t seen her do since high school. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tony said, stopping any further conversation and getting everyone’s attention. His brow was furrowed as his eyes flickered from Lewis to Lewis. “Wait a moment.” 

“Tony…” Darcy asked suspiciously. 

Tony ignored her to point at Grams. “Emma?” he asked and Grams nodded, amused. He turned and pointed at her father and mother. “Weston and Elizabeth?”

“Yes,” Dad agreed with a knowing smirk and Darcy suddenly knew where this was going. She sighed at the look on Tony’s face.

“Kat is short for Katherine?” he continued, pointing at her youngest sister. 

“I refused to be called Kitty,” her sister told him without hesitation, also smirking. Tony looked at Ellie expectantly. 

“Elinor,” she replied, resigned, but with a hint of a smile playing at her lips. 

Tony grinned, looking absolutely delighted. Then he saw Aunt Winni and frowned. “What happened to you?” he demanded and Darcy snickered when he was immediately hit on the back of the head by Natasha. Her aunt didn’t take offense though, just smiled. 

“Middle name is Winifred,” she told him. “First name is Susan.” 

“You’re all named for Austen characters,” Wanda realized, blinking at them. Her brother frowned next to her, obviously having not read the books. 

“I continued my mother’s tradition because I decided it was too much of a coincidence that I married a woman who also had an Austen name,” her Dad agreed and Tony laughed.

“And your best friend is a Jane,” Scott said gleefully and she sighed as more than one person snickered. 

“There was also a character of Austen’s named James,” her mother offered with a smirk and Darcy and Bucky looked at each other in resignation as the team all laughed. 

“We’re never hearing the end of this, are we?” she asked him as her family, both of them, started talking and joking. His eyes crinkled at her, an arm wrapping around her waist. 

“I’ve always liked Charlotte for a girl?” 

“Don’t give them ideas,” she scolded. His eyes flickered over to Natasha before grinning down at her. 

“Too late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they all had breakfast and her parents adopted every single one of them. ;)
> 
> Also, I know it's been done but...I couldn't help it with the names thing. And honestly, I'm kinda thrilled my attempt at making it less obvious worked so well. 
> 
> Epilogue left!


	13. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six months later....

_And I hold my favorite thing  
I hold the love that you bring  
But it feels like I've opened my eyes again  
And the colors are golden and bright again  
There's a song in my heart, I feel like I belong  
It's a better place since you came along  
It's a better place since you came along_  
“Better Place” Rachel Platten

 

Darcy thought it was the height of irony that the very first press conference she had to organize was her own. 

“Why do I have to do this again?” she asked in the room next to the conference center, where about 30ish reporters and journalists were waiting for whatever news the Avengers were about to release. Steve, Bucky, Selena, and Natasha were in the corner, discussing possible extraction plans if it went south while Pepper, Rhodey, and Stark were in another corner discussing how Tony was _not_ going to “introduce Darcy by claiming her as family, Tony have you lost your mind?!” 

“Because you need to get it over with so my sister can get the stick out of her ass,” Carmen said next to her, texting with Mark and making sure he was watching in Santa Fe. Carmen had come with her and Selena as emotional support—though for whom, Darcy honestly wasn’t sure. 

“But she IS family, Pep, Grams even said so!” 

Darcy took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

As she’d suspected, Tony had taken to her family like a duck to water. Any time the team would go out, her mother would call and fuss. One time it got so bad, her mom calling every ten minutes, Darcy finally hunted Stark down, thrust the phone into his face, and ordered him to tell their mother he was okay. Though clearly startled at the claim of dual ownership, Tony had nevertheless done as he was told and her mother had finally backed off…until the next time she saw them fighting on the news and it started all over again. Pepper thought it was both touching and hilarious. Rhodey just kept laughing each time it happened.

On the flip-side, she’d also learned not to ever ever mention anything going wrong for the Lewis clan back in Colorado. If she did, she’d inevitably get a phone call from her parents demanding to know why there were people coming in to fix something and saying they were from Stark.

(Though her father really really liked the new computer lab and student tablets the school had been gifted with a month after her reunion.)

While Tony had her mother to hen over him, he was not the only one to be adopted. Grams did the same damn thing to Natasha, Clint, and Sam, though less frequently because they weren’t nearly as flashy in their fighting as Tony was. Steve, to his utter thanks, never had to deal with it from Grams (he’d admitted it would have been weird considering he’d known he way back when) but Dad was known to call Steve and chew him out whenever he saw the Captain do something particularly stupid on TV. Bucky had laughed until the older Lewis did the same thing to him with the added bonus of guilt-tripping him by mentioning Darcy. 

Darcy didn’t know what was going on with Rhodey and her aunt and she honestly didn’t _want_ to know; just like she didn’t want to know how Kat had ended up taking Pietro _and_ Wanda to her senior homecoming dance. Wanda had assured Darcy her attendance had been so she could experience such a thing, but the same could not be said for her suddenly sappy twin. 

Seriously, the less she had to think about her aunt with Rhodey or her little sister with Pietro, the better. 

“Miss Lewis? They’re ready,” one of the conference people said, coming over. He, like most people there, had no clue what was going on. He’d been pretty good about it though, only asking questions that would make things easier, such as whether or not they would need extra security if people got upset. She’d already texted FRIDAY asking to look into hiring him for her department. 

“I will be introducing her, Tony, you’re just here to stand around and look pretty,” Pepper finally said, breaking into Tony’s whining about introducing Darcy.

“Are you sure that’s in his repertoire?” Steve asked and Darcy snickered at the absolutely wounded look Tony gave him. 

“I can look pretty!” 

“But not much else,” Carmen quipped and Tony glared. 

“I pay you,” he threatened and Carmen smiled serenely back at him. That was one woman who, after she found him half-asleep in a bowl of cheerios, was not intimidated in the least. David found it both awesome and nerve-wracking.

“ _I_ pay her and we need to get out there,” Pepper broke in before Tony could start. She turned back to Carmen’s sister. “Selena, if you would?” 

“Yes, Miss Potts,” the Latina agreed, slipping into the other room. Bucky came over as Selena called for everyone’s attention and introduced Pepper. 

“You ready for this?” he asked, looking down at her, hand twisting in hers. “Being the face of the Avengers?”

“I think so,” she agreed. She took a deep breath as through the open door she could hear Pepper talking about the need for a more visible team, with someone as the spokesperson. “But if I look like I’m about to puke, do me a favor and create a diversion.” 

“I could kiss Steve,” he joked. “Pretty sure that would distract everyone.”

“And give me a lovely headache my first day on the job, no thanks,” she said and he laughed. 

“You said create a diversion, you didn’t say it had to be a happy one.”

She swat at him an then took a deep breath. Pepper was winding down, listing all her fun credentials. She gave Bucky a quick peck on the lips and then steeled herself to step out the door. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, the new face of the Avengers PR, Darcy Lewis!” 

As she smiled next to Pepper, Tony, Steve, and the rest of the team, she mentally thought her life couldn’t get much better than this. 

Then an explosion sounded outside. 

As the team disappeared, the journalists were already on their phones and tablets. She could see a few watching her expectantly though and she turned to her old class-mate, new guardian. “Doom,” Selena said, hand hovering over her ear. She smirked. “Seems like he didn’t expect the entire team…the Four just showed up.”

Selena absolutely positively refused to call them the Fantastic Four…something Johnny Storm was still trying to change her mind about. 

“I bet he didn’t,” she agreed, referring to Doom. She smirked at Selena. “Ready to get to work?” 

“Lead the way, Boss Lady.”

“Boss Lady, I like it,” she said as Carmen and David fell in step with her as they disappeared swiftly into the back room, where the team was already setting up to observe and plan. Bucky was off to the side, cussing Steve out over the comms as he watched video surveillance. Carmen immediately went over to see if there was any damage to buildings yet she could help advise on. David disappeared to join the medical team downstairs. Selena stayed just off to the side, watching everyone work. They caught each other’s eye and grinned. 

“Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Everything’s gotta end sometime, otherwise nothing would ever get started.” - The Doctor. 
> 
> It has been a fun trip and while I’m not finished with this world, I have several one-shots that are not set in this world but that I think everyone will enjoy. :D So no worries, we’ll come back to the Lewis clan again, just maybe not for a few weeks, lol. 
> 
> This is probably my most popular story on AO3 and I have all of you lovely readers to thank for that. You have been a great motivator and your enthusiasm for something I hadn't attempted before kept me typing even when my fingers felt numb from the cold (new house is very well insulted). So thank you, all of you! 
> 
> Hakuna Matata, bitches!


End file.
